I HAVE A NEW BLOG. THIS SITE WILL ARCHIVE MY OLD STUFF FOR AS LONG AS THE GOOD PEOPLE AT XANGA WILL LET ME. MY NEW STUFF CAN BE FOUND AT http://theworldofwheels.blogspot.com/.

This should serve as a journal entry of sorts. It is a letter to a mentor I had in high school. But in the spirit of authenticity, I thought I’d put it up and see what kind of feedback it got. I am concerned after reading it once more how many times I used the word “feeling.” God is not an emotion nor is it becoming of us as his followers to appeal to emotions alone. That was a careless but possibly reveling error on my part.

Hello Old Friend,

I know it’s been awhile. I can’t even really say what is inspiring this message, but I feel lead to type it—so here it goes. I’m reading John Eldredge’s sequel to Wild at Heart called Way of the Wild Heart, and it is speaking a lot about the fathering/mentoring process. I could not help but think of you. I guess the purpose of this letter must be twofold. The first of these is to offer some encouragement to my old mentor. More specifically, to let you know that your efforts in whatever area do not and did not go unnoticed or without fruit. Secondly, to tell you that for the first time in my life I feel a certain sense of self assuredness arising in me. (This can only be due to the lessons taught to me by the men who came before me such as you.) This sense is weak and very fragile now; which has got me wondering about the appropriateness of wanting to stand up for myself, but also live in humility. I am beginning to see how much of life’s pains have come, at least in my case, through a persistent hopeless and powerless feeling. That feeling is abundantly present in my earthly life. This world’s obstacles defeat me with ease most days. However, as I converse with God I cannot help but think He wants much better for me (perhaps not in a physical sense, but ultimately better in some sense) This is a new feeling. Exploring that God may actually want pleasant events to occur in my life is positively mind blowing. For so long I have believed the lie that the cross was such a big gift he could not possibly have others for his people.

 However, it is very hard to discern God’s hopes for me, and the one’s which come from me alone. Especially considering that I am still being massacred by old demons which have wreaked havoc sense the beginning of our friendship. I can only imagine that the have now reached the part of my soul where my hopes and dreams are kept. Perhaps their perversions are creating false hope within me. And hence blinding me toward any truth God may have me discover. Of course this may be an unnecessary loop. Perhaps these big dreams I am feeling for the first time in a long time are God’s means of finally delivering victory to me over the past. Hope is a very peculiar thing. I do not expect that you will be able to answer many of my questions and longings directly. However, God has usually provided some clarity and wisdom for me in our conversations. As always please do not feel obligated or rushed to respond. All I know is I feel a major spiritual growth spurt coming on. I could really use some prayer as I prepare to embark upon what ever His voice is calling me towards.

Your Brother,

Aaron   

Response to Criticisms of the Previous Post

Originally posted on the message board of One holy Catholic and apostolic church?

Adam,

In response to your thoughts on Hudson’s repost of the piece I put on my blog. (post #31) I have some questions:

1.)    What errors have I made with regard to my understanding of Catholic Tradition or infallibility?

2.)    Do you have any grounds to support your opinion that the practices of the early church (those practices which can be verified through scripture since at the moment it is the only source we both believe to be true) are dissimilar to the practices of Protestantism as you understand it?

3.)    How do you support the claim that there is little controversy among scholars with regard to the similitude of the doctrines of the early church and those of modern day Catholicism? If there was no controversy between Catholic and Protestant scholars about the others’ practices, and their symmetry to those of the early church, then why would the common members of each group (you and I) be in such disagreement?

4.)    With regard to your concerns about my perspective on the usage of the word “faith” I ask this question. Does God always give you a reasonable answer as to why things happen? For me personally the answer is no. I am able to use logic and reason to discern many things about God. But it is my opinion that He is in charge of exactly what I am allowed to figure out. He seems to support such a belief in both the Old and New Testaments. Since, once again, scripture is our only common ground at this point. I will use it to articulate where I coming from:

Verses affirming the use of knowledge (reasonable understanding):

Proverbs 2:1-7 

 1 My child listen to what I say,
      and treasure my commands.
 2 Tune your ears to wisdom,
      and concentrate on understanding.
 3 Cry out for insight,
      and ask for understanding.
 4 Search for them as you would for silver;
      seek them like hidden treasures.
 5 Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord,
      and you will gain knowledge of God.
 6 For the Lord grants wisdom!
      From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
 7 He grants a treasure of common sense to the honest.
      He is a shield to those who walk with integrity.

1 Peter 3:15-16 

15 Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it. 16 But do this in a gentle and respectful way. Keep your conscience clear. Then if people speak against you, they will be ashamed when they see what a good life you live because you belong to Christ.

However, scripture (both testaments) seems to indicate there is indeed a point where faith and reason cease to coexist and faith alone takes over:

Isaiah 55:8-9 

 8 “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.
      “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
 9 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
      so my ways are higher than your ways
      and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

Paul, in his 1st letter to the Corinthians, actually quotes Isaiah ( 29:14) when he says:

1 Corinthians 1:19-23 

19 As the Scriptures say,

   “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise
      and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.”

 20 So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish. 21 Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe. 22 It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom. 23 So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense.

But once again Paul affirms that wisdom and knowledge that come from God are indeed good things. He does so just seven verses later:

1 Corinthians 1:26-30 

 26 Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. 27 Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. 28 God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. 29 As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God.

 30 God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin.

I find it helpful to remember that:

1 Corinthians 13:9 

9 Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture!

But perhaps the best analogy is found in the words of Jesus himself:

Matthew 18:2-3 

 2 Jesus called a little child to him and put the child among them. 3 Then he said, “I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven.

From that I take my perspective on where reason ceases to go and faith continues in its place. Is a child able to reason? Yes, somewhat.—this, of course, depends on the child’s age, but a child by definition has limited reasoning. That is one of the things which makes it a child, and also makes it submissive to its parents. That is sometimes what we have to do as Christians. We have to submit to our Heavenly Father simply because he says so. But for rational men like you and I it can be faith’s biggest challenge to find that point of submission. I hope this helps. May God bless everyone reading this.

~Aaron Nelson

Editor’s Note:

First off let me say this. I was so excited when Hudson asked me to write a little something to post on here. Why? Because I love you guys. Whether your Catholic, Protestant, Black, White, Purple, Orange, Man, Woman or Martian. You all have challenged me deeply in my faith and for that I love you, and Jesus loves you too. I am amazed at the command you have recalling the doctrines of your beliefs, and I make it my goal to be as sharpened as you all one day. It’s in a word commendable.  The following discussion is first and foremost not an argument, but my response to the ongoing discussion in the facebook group One holy Catholic and apostolic church? The following is only intended to add to the conversation. I am very sorry this was too long to post directly on the message board. Thank you for following the link. Most of my perspective was adapted from A.A. Hodge’s work Sola Scriptura. It can be found at http://www.mbrem.com/bible/solahodge.htm. Please excuse the errors in writing mechanics. I’m sure there are many.

Hudson has told me that there was a lively discussion over Sola Scriptura. While I think this is as good a place as any to begin. I do not know that either side will be able prove anything from it. Nor do I think either side will be able to definitively prove that they are right and the other is wrong with regard to any of this. At some point it all comes down to having faith in your personal beliefs about God and letting him do the rest in molding those beliefs to be true. And honestly I believe that’s how God intended it. One of the ways I believe God molds are beliefs is through scripture. So the issue of Sola Scriptura is an important one. In my opinion Catholicism’s entire defense for the authority of tradition is Papal declaration. Although the claim has been made that there is scriptural references for Papal authority, this to is problematic based on the fact that the previous argument which strikes at the integrity of scripture being the only way to operate would also strike at the very verses which supposedly affirm the authority of the Pope and his subsequent traditions. I am not saying that one cannot use scriptural interpretation when operating in faith, but hopefully I will get to address the difference between Papal Declaration instituting a tradition, and scriptural interpretation causing someone to do something toward the end of this post. For now we’ve got some ground to cover. I threw this fictional conversation in here to see if I am summarizing the arguments correctly. I am open to rebuttal as I am sure I’ve misunderstood something, but this is what I am hearing in conversation form:

PROTESTANT: How can one believe in Papal authority and his subsequent traditions?

CATHOLIC: The Bible is true and supports such a belief.

PROTESTANT: Between the traditions as set forth by the Pope and scripture alone which should one concern himself more with?

CATHOLIC: The Traditions… based on the fact that that Papal authority through tradition should give us the correct interpretation of scripture itself.

PROTESTANT: But didn’t you just say that scripture itself is what gives the Pope his authority?

CATHOLIC: Yes

PROTESTANT: So if (hypothetically) the system Jesus left in place was to deviate from the very thing that gives it its power (because of an attack from Satan on the followers of Christ) wouldn’t that system loose its power?  

Protestants believe that is exactly what happened. And Protestants are left with Sola Scriptura plus interpretive powers as a result. (More like a modified Sola Scriptura) To me the argument is not one of tradition v. scripture alone, but rather whether or not the only existing church at the time (the early or first Church later called the “Catholic” church) deviated from its power source (Scripture itself/or God called the word see John 1)

And in order to examine whether the church deviated from it’s power source we are left with the power source (Scripture/God called the word) and the actions of the church, in contrast or alignment,  after it (Supposedly) was disconnected; to see if indeed there was a disconnection. In other words is the source (scripture/God called the word) still powering the church and can the unbiased observer see that its interpretations or traditions are still based on scripture. For Protestants the answer was unequivocally no when observing the Catholic Church’s traditions at least sometime between the canonization of the Bible and the Reformation. That’s why when the time came they became Protestants. We believe that there was a disconnection between the action of church leadership and the scripture, God as the word that once powered it.   That is why this becomes a discussion based solely on scripture for Protestants— Because if Papal authority becomes powerless, as we believe it did, we can no longer count it as valid. What is the only way anyone can verify if Papal authority indeed did become disconnected? By identifying contrasting actions of the leadership with scripture the way the bible tells us to in 2 Peter 2:1-3:

2 Peter 2:1-3 

 1 But there were also false prophets in Israel, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly teach destructive heresies and even deny the Master who bought them. In this way, they will bring sudden destruction on themselves. 2 Many will follow their evil teaching and shameful immorality. And because of these teachers, the way of truth will be slandered. 3 In their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money. But God condemned them long ago, and their destruction will not be delayed.

This test goes for any group that calls themselves a church not just the Catholic one. That is exactly why there are so many Protestant denominations. Many Catholics will argue that the disunity of Protestantism is evidence that Protestants did not have the will of God going for them. That is always a possibility. But if indeed there was one disconnect from scripture I find it very likely it could happen again, and again, and again… Does that mean those of us who would seek truth would go to the newest teaching hoping that it is still connecting to truth? Of Course not, because if that were true that would mean false teachers could not lead people astray in the name of true truth, which is enviably false. I think most Catholics would make the argument that is exactly what happened with Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation. And that’s where we disagree.     

But Catholics are right about many things in my opinion including: If the “Catholic church when it was still connected fully to scripture” which I like to call the “early” church (and I will do so from this point on) did not become disconnected those traditions which they’ve put in place over time would be valid. And indeed the practices of the early church are. Not because the leader laying them down was given the authority to add to the practices of Christians with tradition, but because he was in line with scripture and blessed by God to interpret what it means before the disconnection.  Protestants count the words of Peter the first “Pope” and leader of the early church to be precious. But clearly the disconnection from a Protestants view happened sometime after the canonization of scripture (which we except as Protestants) and the Reformation.   

Now I hope we can begin to examine whether there was a disconnection or whether Protestants are crazy for believing there was. Of course if we do that we will have solved a thousand years of bickering and honestly I have my doubts. I doubt because I really feel in this case it’s a matter of faith. And faith often lives or dies based on how the observer views the evidence. And to view evidence which at its heart is of an unknown world takes eyes that see the unknown world. That is where we begin to insist the other ones blind. How do we objectively begin to open our heart’s eyes to such a conundrum? I think we ask ourselves this question: Do the actions of those in power at our churches match the character supposedly powering them? But then what do I know? I just a dude up way too late trying to find answers in the keys of his keyboard.

~Aaron J. Nelson