Theology of Andrew: Clarifications

Friday, June 27, 2008

Clarifications

I think some people might have misread a few of my last posts so this is to clear things up.

1. By saying that I personally am just focussing on being a Christian, doesn't mean I think Catholicism is 'wrong'. I think some people got really excited about the idea that I wasn't calling myself 'Catholic' which is just a word, a word that scares Protestant Evangelicals far far too much.

2. I wasn't actually saying that Catholicism is Pelagian or Semi-Pelagian in Principal. In my note about Luther and Calvin being right, I could have written "St. Augustine, you were right" or "Catholic Council of Orange you were right". My main problem with Catholicism is not it's doxy but the praxy, it's the practice at the local level. In theory I have very few problems with it, but in practice, in the lives of almost every Catholic I personally see face to face, I find it superstitious, lacking, nationalistic, and false. My favourite phrase is now: "Protestants are better Catholics than Catholics"

3. What I was saying against Catholicism is that I don't believe they have a monopoly. I believe that Protestants, Orthodox, and Anglican Christians have the same things they do, and that each group has strengths and weaknesses. I was saying that the practical churches I saw in my short time were all riddled with problems. None of them shone with that 'One Holy Catholic and Apostolic' gleam that I searched for. Just alot of people trying to understand God.

I just thought I'd clear that up.

Secondly, I am not saying that Theology is not important. I despise the United Church of Canada because I think they sold their theology for unity. What was it Luther said again? "Peace if possible, truth at all costs". The United church is a perfect example of what happens if we bury the Calvinist-Arminian debate (United church being Presbyterian (calvinist) and Methodist (Arminian/Wesleyan)). Did it solve anything? no. Did it bring unity? yes. I wouldn't trade one for the other, though of course Love is to abound in all endeavors of the church. (sorry to the UCC people out there, this is just my personal opinion)

Basically I just think we should focus more on Christ, the author and perfector of our faith. (heb 12.2)

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Quotes For Thought

"If baptism is the beginning of my life, and the day of regeneration is the first of days, it is obvious that the words spoken when I received the grace of adoption are more honorable than any spoken since....Through this confession I was made a child of God, I, who was His enemy for so long because of my sins. May I pass from this life to the Lord with this confession on my lips." - St. Basil the Great, On the Holy Spirit, par. 26.

"To know Jesus and Jesus crucified is the sum total of my philosophy." - St. Bernard of Clairvaux

"Oh the extraordinary goodness of God toward man? The just of the Old Testament thank God in the weariness of long years; but that which they obtained, by means of a long and heroic service pleasing to God, Jesus gives to you in the brief time span of an hour. Indeed, if you believe that Jesus Christ is the lord, and that God had raised him from the dead, you will be saved and you will be introduced into heaven by the same one who introduced the good thief." - St. Cyril of Jerusalem

"He made us to believe in Christ, who made for us a Christ on whom we believe. He makes in men the beginning and the completion of the faith in Jesus who made the man Jesus the beginner and finisher of faith" - St. Augustine

"Nor must we trust in holiness of origin, in forefathers, or in
the gifts of God which we enjoy. We must look to the Word alone and judge thereby. Those alone who truly embrace the Word will be as immovable forever as Mount Zion. They may be few in number and thoroughly despised by the world, as were Noah and his children. But God, through these few, preserved to man the truth of that promised mastery when he had not even room to set his foot upon the earth." - Bl. Martin Luther "Commentary on Genesis"