Orthodoxy, -isms & -ologies 2

Q: What do you believe?

A: I believe what the church believes

Q: What does the Church believe?

A: It believes what I believe

Q: What do you and the church believe?

A: We believe the same thing!

The Trinity

For the first 400 years or so, the understanding and inter-working of the three persons of the Trinity were being hammered out and largely in this orthodoxy was established

Within the creeds was a stated understanding of all that was necessary for salvation …or was there?

Is the process of salvation EVER clearly stated in the creeds?

Can a person affirm all that is in the creeds, yet be hell-bound?

What is the Process of Salvation?

…and how do we know?

Is it affirming the creeds?

Is it a matter of “saying the sinner’s prayer?”

Is it “fire insurance?”

What does the Bible tell us?

What did Jesus tell His disciples?

Mark 2 14 “And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.”

Matt 4 19 “And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.””

Did He ever say “trust me as your savior?” “...accept me into your heart?:

What is true salvation then?

John 3 36 “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”

Salvation, then is true belief (faith); true belief is shown by our response to Him—following Him!

Eph 2 8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

Though it is not of works…Eph 2 10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Within the salvation process there is a process called Regeneration

There is dispute over whether salvation occurs before or after regeneration

functionally, I argue that it’s of no concern

A truly saved person is regenerated—a new person

An unsaved person is not regenerated—though he/she may try to play the part, still unsaved

For anyone wishing to argue the minutia of such things, chase down the term Ordo Salutis

Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms (ordo salutis)

ordo salutis. Latin, meaning “order of salvation,” that is, the succession of events in God’s salvific program. Although both the Catholic and Reformed traditions believe that salvation comes only through Christ, they diverge dramatically regarding the ordo salutis. The ordo salutis of the Reformed tradition includes such matters as effectual calling, regeneration, faith, justification, sanctification and glorification. The Roman Catholic Church, in contrast, “dispenses grace” through the ordered sacraments of baptism and confirmation, the Eucharist, penance, either marriage or ordination, and the rite of healing, known in the past as extreme unction (the preparatory rite for death).

Which brings us to our first “ism”

Roman Catholicism

A Roman Understanding of Salvation

A believer sins and a priest determines what payment is owed to God. In case of inadequate payment, purgatory appears as an afterlife where adequate restitution can be made. (Shelly)

Which flows to —that restitution has to come from someplace!

Pocket Dictionary of Church History: Over 300 Terms Clearly and Concisely Defined (Treasury of Merit (Treasury of the Church))

treasury of merit (treasury of the church). The teaching of a treasury of merit, a long-held tradition of the Roman Catholic Church, was reiterated and codified by the *Vatican II Council in the 1960s. It is based on the belief that the meritorious (good) works done by Christ, the apostles and the martyrs were far in excess of that necessary to complete the work of salvation. These excess works were deposited in a treasury that can be distributed by popes to the benefit of souls in *purgatory, allowing them to pass into heaven more quickly. This view was rejected the Protestant reformers.

…as opposed to protestant-ism—Christ’s finished work on the cross paid it all!

A Bit of History

How did we get there?

Using Bruce Shelly’s division of the times

Age of catholic Christianity

2nd century: Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria

3rd century: Origen, Cyprian

4th century: Anthony, Athanasius, Basil, Jerome, Augustine

4th century also brought the conversion of Constantine, the legalization of Christianity, the first of the ecumenical councils

With the Roman empire legalizing Christianity, the Church began to spread along with the empire—arguably taking on a structure that was not dissimilar

By 380 AD, Christianity was the religion not just legalized, but enforced by edict of Theodosius

It is our will that all the peoples we rule shall practise that religion which the divine Peter the Apostle transmitted to the Romans. We shall believe in the single Deity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, under the concept of equal majesty and of the Holy Trinity

Problem was that politics had already entered at the higher levels and men of faith were replaced by men of political loyalty

Multiple doctrinal errors crept in as well, veneration of saints, veneration of Mary—her perpetual virginity and being co-redemptrix w/Christ, the concept of monasticism, penance…a host of others

As this developed, it ended with the power of the church headquartered in Rome

If I understand the circumstances correctly, Gregory, Bishop in Rome ~600 AD, took a step to quell a problem among bishops elsewhere, his efforts were successful and the power of the papacy was born (over simplification)

He attempted to stay with and safeguard orthodoxy—but error had crept in

isms within isms

Donatists

A movement in North Africa

Rejected the corruption of the church, by ordaining unholy bishops

Donatism was a Christian sect leading to a schism in the Church from the fourth to the sixth centuries. Donatists argued that Christian clergy must be faultless for their ministry to be effective and their prayers and sacraments to be valid.

Pelagianism

PELAGIANISM The teachings associated with Pelagius, a British monk who taught in Rome in the late 4th and early 5th centuries ad. Pelagianism taught that people are capable of avoiding sin and choosing to live righteous lives even apart from God’s grace. Pelagius rejected the ideas of original sin and predestination. He believed that people were not inherently sinful and that they were able to live holy lives in accordance with God’s will and merit salvation by good works. His views were vehemently opposed by Augustine of Hippo.

Eastern Orthodoxy

Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms (Eastern Orthodoxy)

A branch of Christianity that is committed to preserving the doctrines formulated by the early church fathers as outlined in the seven ecumenical councils of the fourth through the eighth centuries. Although sharing certain theological commitments with Roman Catholicism and Protestantism (such as the doctrine of the Trinity), Eastern Orthodoxy is characterized by at least three major distinctives: (1) apophatic theology, which suggests that because God is beyond rational understanding, a person can only know God as an “inner vision of light”; (2) the trinitarian understanding of the Spirit proceeding from the Father alone (as in the original wording of the Nicene Creed) and not also from the Son (as in the Western version of the Creed); and (3) salvation as a process of deification, that is, of participating in the divine nature.

Worship involves icons

A major problem with both Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism is that they focus on process, not relationship

Within Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox sects, I believe we have always found true believers

Despite the baggage that the organization loads upon the people, they see through and are truly seeking and following Christ

Next session will be the Reformation