Open Minded

I've been enjoying alot of discussions with an Evangelical Seminarian friend on my vacation in Kansas. I always told him that my spiritual journey to Catholicism was always totally reluctant and that if I could find a theological defense of Protestantism I'd become Anglican. He said that he can find Church Fathers who taught Sola Fide - which I have yet to see even James White and others do, so I kind of doubt that will happen.

I think it's not mis-loyalty to my Church (Catholic) to be open-minded, after all, that's how I ended up there. One of my friends (Evangelical) is becoming Mormon and we met with some of their missionaries yesterday and my Evangelical Seminarian friend and I both ripped apart their arguments. First I used their "priesthood authority" argument to prove the validity of Apostolic Succession, etc. But they ended up saying that they didn't believe the history that Clement followed Peter, etc. My friend then went from the Sola Scriptura attack of their addition to the revelation of the Old and New Testament. At the end of the day I felt like He and I were certainly of the same (or at least extremely similar faith) compared to these Mormons.

Anyway, as I dialogue with him and been around all my Reformed and Evangelical friends I've been trying to find some kind of loophole that would let me out of Catholicism, but so far all I've come up with are the skeletons of arguments.

#1
My first was an East Orthodox/Trad. Anglican one about the nature of Scripture and Tradition and the example of the Avignon papacy which I've just read about and how the general masses of Priests, Theologians, and Bishops all voted to depose the popes and elect a new one. In which case, this illuminates a more 'collegial union' argument about Church authority (if not a Presbyterian one). Another was the fact that according to the Historian I was reading (Will Durrant) that the theology of the day during the Avignon papacy was that a pope could only be deposed by a general council or if the pope taught "manifest heresy". That belief would show at least a very minimal development of Papal Infallibility doctrine. At most, it would show that the doctrine is completely foreign to the catholic faith, and that only conciliar infallibility would stand (leaving me free to join the Anglican Church).

#2
Donation/Anabaptist attack on the practices of the Church which were corrupt and that the true church is where the spirit of Christ is at work, etc. But that would be the theological and epistemological equivalent to shooting myself in the foot as the church has been and always will be sinful.

Of course if I ever seriously entertained the first argument in favour of Anglicanism I could just use the same argument to deconstruct the Communion of Canterbury which HAS taught "manifest heresy" (ordination of priestesses, etc).

So it looks like I'll be Catholic forever, and that's fine I guess. But being with Evangelicals is always painful because they (like Protestant Converts to Catholicism) are the only ones I know and read who talk about God as if they know and love him personally. I'm glad that their presence and discussion has helped rekindle my personal love for Jesus. If I lose that, then all the theology in the world is helpless to save me.

Throwing The Papists A Bone - 3 Stories

Today at lunch my Mennonite family persisted on bringing up my conversion, which I was very uncomfortable with. I'm starting to get tired of their would-be sympathy. It's a hillarious thing I've noticed among Evangelical-Catholic relations these days. The "Progress" consists of Evangelicals telling 3 types of stories:

1. The Accidental Protestants

This story generally consists of a 'godly bible believing Christian' (Evangelical) meeting a Catholic and then finding out that they use phrases like "Believe in Jesus" and "personal relationship with God" or "Saved by Grace", and they then assume that by the Divine Providence of the almighty, glory hallelujah the Catholics actually don't believe Catholicism, they believe Evangelicalism. They just like pictures and statues, but for all intents and purposes average joe Catholic is a Christian in their eyes because God has been gracious enough to make them accidentally Protestant and their hope at the end of life will be their anti-Catholic Protestant beliefs that they held while in the communion of Babylon.

2. Saved By Sola Fide

I have a friend from bible school who when she talks about denominations says "I don't care what you call yourself if you believe in Jesus you're saved". This is an interesting approach because at first it sounds open and ecumenical. But when you dig deep you find they really mean this : "I don't care what building you go in, as long as you believe what I believe, you'll be going to heaven" (salvation by sola fide, with extrinsic, imputed righteousness, with no saved church before Martin Luther, etc).

3. Trent Erasers

Finally there are some who have read recent Church History or books like Mark Knoll's "Is the Reformation Over?" where he declares Protestantism has won in Vatican II Trent is defeated, the Reformation is over. (His book on the American Military Victory of Vietnam will be coming out shortly - sarcasm). These folks think that because we utter the mass - still the greatest blasphemy in human history according to Luther - in English, that somehow makes it alright. God can now understand it, so even though it's blasphemy it's ok. They also fail to note that absolutely none of the doctrines of Catholicism were even touched by Vatican II, Trent and it's anathemas still remain. In fact Vatican II states itself that those who willfully separate themselves from the Roman Catholic Communion are jeopardizing their souls. But many simply take the nice wording Catholicism has used post-1960 and assumed that Trent isn't an issue anymore. I told a friend Michael that you can say we are saved by loving Jesus and it's the theological equivalent to saying we are saved by working for Jesus. Love and works are interchangeable in New Testament theology, it's just that one sounds nice.

So ultimately I decide not to talk with Evangelicals now about Roman Catholicism because the only way they will declare me a Christian is if I jump through their linguistic hoops and use their phrases. Then and only then will they say I might be a Christian but only because I'm an "evangelical Catholic" (a confusing term indeed). I definately take alot of my theology from my Evangelical Protestant upbringing but I wish to make no mistake with them, I am 100% Catholic. If I'm an Evangelical Catholic, I'm also a Papal Catholic, a Marian Catholic, a Tridentine Catholic. I also don't care whether some Anabaptist who has raped 2000 years of Church History just to play guitar solos in their sunday morning service, thinks I'm a Christian or not. With St. Thomas More I can say, my conscience is clean, I have stayed faithful to Christ's Church, a small merit amidst an ocean of my sins and faillures.

An old man (Evangelical) I met on a walk in the woods the other day tried to "save" me by telling me about Jesus only to be shocked that I'd heard his message before, I gave him my Evangelical Resume (Baptist Upbringing, Bible reading, Capernwray, Preaching, etc) and left out the Catholic part, he was 84 and I didn't want to bother him. I laughed though as I left, what a strange religion, he had a 2 minute plan to save me, Sola Fide seems more and more ridiculous to me each day, God's greatest plan for humanity was to get them to believe someting happened in history. No wonder Protestants believe Guttenburg was practically a messiah, the world could evidently be saved by teaching children in history class that Jesus died on the cross for their sins and then move on to the reigns of Augustus and Octavian. There's the master plan, man remaining in sin, believing something and being covered with an alien cloak of righteousness, God sneaking theives and murderers into his own house. Personally I'll take purgatory, purification, holiness, and a changed heart and life.

Sorry that this blog was so offensive to Protestants - especially Anabaptists - but please try and understand before you get angry yourself, that I've heard these 3 narratives so many times it's infuriating. The end is, I'm a Catholic, I follow the Pope, he's my earthly Shepherd, I confess my sins to a priest, I chew on Jesus' flesh, and I believe he will make me a saint. Throw in other words like "evangelical" if it comforts you, but as for this Papist, i'm Catholic and proud. (and as triumphalistic as Chesterton at this time of night).

My Personal Relationship With Jesus

I spent the last 5 days with my friends from Capernwray who are some of the most genuine evangelicals (in every good sense of the word) I know. They've re-taught me alot about the faith and the importance of the Bible and the necessity for a personal relationship with Jesus.

I hope I never forget the first time I ever went to Mass, I just sat in the back row the whole time, I refused to kneel, there were no songs, and I didn't know any of the prayers, but I remember the homily. It was on the importance of having a personal relationship with Jesus and that it is the centre of a living faith. I'm not for a second pretending that the Roman Catholic Church I go to actually teaches what Wesley would call "true Christianity" or Schaeffer "True Spirituality" - that is, a faith based in the grace of God and the finished work of Christ on the Cross, rich in good works flowing from the power of the Holy Spirit. But it must have been an off night. I'm Catholic because the Christian tradition, Logic, and Scripture oblige me to, not because it does anything near a good job in actually preaching or practicing the gospel. But enough complaints.

I wanted to write about my personal walk with Christ and how it has strengthened this year. I've been reading the Bible again with an open heart and praying that God will teach me things. Starting with 2 Corinthians, a bit of Romans, and 1 Samuel I feel that God has re-inforced the most important parts of salvation to me. He has shown me that he has unlimited grace and love for me as long as I am in Christ. He has taught me about the significance of my baptism and faith in Christ. But most importantly God has reassured me in what my Catholic friend Philip once said in an email, that becoming a saint is not only possible for those in Christ, but it is an inevitability. I still find that the most difficult dogma to believe. The infallibility of the Church/Pope wasn't that difficult, the immaculate conception was difficult, but the complete Regeneration of a Christian in this life and the next (purgatory) - that seemed impossible.

I've learned alot in the past year about my sinfulness and as I sit here writing I find it humorous. My Atheist and Humanist friends always talk about the "freedom" from Relgion and Morality and how they can do whatever they want. Well I've been home 2 days and I've fought through God's grace, and my cooperation (which is still a grace) the temptation to fall back into the sin which has been a 'thorn in my flesh' so to speak. I'm pacing around and stressed out and at that moment I realized that in sin I'm not free at all. As one Protestant theologian said "the most free you will ever be is as a slave to Christ". I tend to agree with that alot. So now I pray and read my bible and read the words "Are you so foolish? Having started with the Spirit, are you now ending with the Flesh?" (Gal 3.3) and trying to have faith in the power of the Spirit. And so I wish always to be an Evangelical Catholic who is given grace through faith and the sacraments, and who is fed by the word of God and the Eucharist, and is always seeking to become what Christ is.

I close with St. Augustine's words which a friend gave me and which will annoy all my Reformed friends:

"God, oh Lord, grant me the power to overcome sin. For sin is that which you gave to us when you granted us free choice of will. If I choose wrongly, then I shall be justly punished for it. Is that not true, my Lord, of whom I indebted for my temporal existence. Thank you, Lord, for granting me the power to will my self not to sin." - St. Augustine

"Once Saved, Always Saved" heresy refuted by Charles Finney

Right now I'm doing an essay on Charles Finney's Lectures on Revivals of Religion, it's mostly how Americans tend to anthropomorphize God into an image of themselves, etc. (You know those Canadian profs). Finney was a Baptist Preacher, Abolitionist, and the founder of Evangelicalism's greatest weapon: "The Altar Call" and anxious seat manuevers, yes this is the man who destroyed the Monergism of historic Protestantism. But I found one passage I like, he lets loose on the popular twisting of Calvin's doctrine of perseverance. This is the detestable heresy known as 'Once Saved, Always Saved'. I've found it everywhere -even Capernwray- but to throw the Mennonites a bone here, they reject it (one of their few but notable successes). I'll let Finney do the talking from here out though:

"Sanctification is obedience, and, as a progressive thing, consists in obeying God more and more perfectly. Young converts should be taught so as to understand what perseverance is. It is astonishing how people talk about perseverance. As if the doctrine of perseverance was "Once in grace, always in grace," or "Once converted, sure to go to heaven." This is not the idea of perseverance. The true idea is, that if a man is truly converted, he will continue to obey God. And as a consequence, he will surely go to heaven. But if a person gets the idea that because he is converted, therefore he will assuredly go to heaven, that man will almost assuredly go to Hell." - Charles Grandison Finney "Instructions of Young Converts in Lectures on the Revivals of Religion".