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No longer protesting

8/15/2019

1 Comment

 
If you’ve followed my blog or any of my social media platforms over the last few years or if you’ve spent much time around me during that time, you’ve probably noticed a difference.

I’m no longer protesting.

Here’s what I mean.
I grew up in a religious home. I grew up in a Protestant home. I grew up in a home that routinely criticized and even called into question the faith of people who were not Protestant, specifically those who were part of the Catholic Church. I want to be clear here. I’m not bashing my Protestant parents or relatives. I merely want to relate my experiences and perhaps it will resonate with you as well.
My “faith” meant almost nothing to me as a child and teenager. I didn’t understand most of what was talked about. I was “saved” at some point around the age of 8 because I said some prayer one Sunday morning, the “sinner’s prayer.” I have no memory of it but know I said it and made a “public profession of faith” and was baptized at some point soon thereafter.

It was not until many years later that I actually came to a saving faith in the person of the Son of God, Jesus the Christ.

Since my conversion and re-birth, I have walked a bit of a winding road. It has taken me through seminary (at a Baptist seminary), church planting, leaving the Baptist practice and becoming Reformed (Presbyterian), re-planting a church (tried to), completing the ordination process in the Anglican Church of North America to where I am today.

What has led me here is what I’d like to talk briefly about before launching into a series of posts about the beliefs and practices of the Church catholic.
I came out of Baptist seminary knowing beyond a doubt that I was not Baptist. It was a bit ironic to me that my professors encouraged us to love and read and study the Bible. But when I began to do the very thing my Baptist professors encouraged me to do, it led me away from the Baptist practice. There were things in the Scriptures that my Baptist friends simply could not answer for me or, if they did, I found their answers to be unsatisfying or explained away.
I’ll give you an example; actually I’ll give you two. The first was baptism. Baptists, of course, believe that baptism is only for those who have made a “public profession” of faith in Jesus. Nothing wrong with making a public profession of faith and being baptized but that didn’t seem to square (at least in my mind and reading) with most of the accounts of baptisms of converts in the book of Acts. Those accounts almost all involved household baptisms. Hmm….that seemed odd to me that members of the family of a professing Christian should be baptized without making a “public profession of faith” in Jesus. So as I dug deeper, I found myself in previously uncharted waters. I was developing what I believe is a more robust and biblical view of covenants and how those play out in the life of God’s people. Thus I became “reformed.”
The second example was the offices of the Church. I began an in-depth study of 1 Timothy in preparation for a sermon series I was going to preach at our church in Nashville (I was the lead pastor of a re-planting effort). As I began my exegetical work, I was a bit surprised to find that Paul uses three distinct Greek words for offices of the Church. He used the word ‘episkopos’ which is best translated ‘bishop’ or ‘overseer.’ He also used the word ‘presbuteros’ which is best translated ‘elder.’ And he used the word ‘diakonos’ which is best translated ‘deacon.’ I found that to be shocking to my formerly Baptist sensibilities. You mean Paul was advocating for three offices, not two?!
That led me to doing some study on the early Church. I thought, ‘Okay, these terms have been hotly contested for many years now. So, how did the earliest leaders of the Church after the Apostles take the meaning of these words?’ I was supremely surprised to find that they all, and I mean all, took it as three offices; bishop, presbyter and deacon. That was jarring for me.

You have to understand…actually, if you’re Protestant, you probably do understand. I was taught from a very young age that anything that looked or smelled or sounded remotely Catholic was evil. Not just, ‘Hey, this is how they do but we do it differently and that’s okay.’ No, I was taught that anything connected to Catholicism was evil.
This discovery about the practice of the early Church shook me to my core. I could not reconcile what I had been taught with either what the Bible said or with the practice of the Church. I didn’t know what to do. So I made a decision that has forever changed my life and the practice of the faith that has been handed down to us.

I went back to the beginning.

I wanted to know what else I had always been taught was contrary to the teaching of the early Church. I had to know how deep it went for me. So I went back to the beginning. I began to study the early Church and her writings. I began to read what we call the Fathers; mostly the Fathers of the early Church, i.e. the first 6 centuries of the Church. What I found shocked me and shook me.

I want to encourage my Protestant friends. Some of you have found modern Protestantism to be lacking in some things. I mean, when churches are dressing people up in movie costumes and having concerts that they call “worship” we’ve drifted a wee bit from a biblical practice so I get it. I want my discouraged Protestant friends to know that there are deeper wells out there. The wisdom of the Church in her reverent worship practices is out there for you. The water is warm.

I want to encourage my catholic friends, both Roman and otherwise. Some of you may not know why you do some of the things you do in worship or what it means or where it came from. You may not understand exactly what’s happening with all the symbolism and ritual. I want my catholic friends to know that those same deep wells are for you also. Go back and read and study as to why we do the things we do. Test what you do and say and believe in the teachings as they have been handed down from the beginning.

My prayer is that we may all be one again.
One Body.
I fear we may not see that day until our Lord returns.
​But we can all strive for it; for His glory and our good.
 
Soli Deo Gloria!
1 Comment
Rick Kuter link
8/22/2019 16:15:29

Scott, good to hear from you. Cooky introduced your blog to me after seeing reference to it on FB. Glad to see you're doing well. I was intrigued by your recent post and thought I would give some responses to some of your points.

1. " I grew up in a home that routinely criticized and even called into question the faith of people who were not Protestant, specifically those who were part of the Catholic Church."
I feel pretty certain that your parents and I would be in agreement that we do not believe that being "Catholic" means you are not saved. But given the distortions of the Scriptural emphasis on having a personal relationship with Christ as a means of salvation by the Catholic church makes it a bigger challenge.

2. "I was “saved” at some point around the age of 8 because I said some prayer one Sunday morning, the “sinner’s prayer.”
Again, I believe your parents would agree with me, and taught that, nobody is saved simply by citing a prayer. That would be the method more commonly taught by the Catholic church. That being the case, you were not "saved" when you vocalized that prayer given you describe that as being all you did at the age of 8. Depends, of course, on what you mean by being "saved", but certainly not "saved" from the consequences of your sins.

3. "I actually came to a saving faith in the person of the Son of God, Jesus the Christ.. Since my conversion and re-birth, I have walked a bit of a winding road."

I thank God that you have a saving relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ. But you did not clearly explain how that occurred. I pray that your subsequent description of having searched for an intellectual understanding of Scriptural teachings and church history and covenants, etc, are not being attributed to your having a relationship with Christ.

4. "seemed odd to me that members of the family of a professing Christian should be baptized without making a “public profession of faith” in Jesus."

Sure hope you are not attributing more to baptism than is portrayed in Scripture (As is the case within the Catholic church). There is nothing to suggest that those members of the family who were baptized had NOT made decisions to submit their lives to Christ as Lord, thereby qualifying them for redemption, prior to their being baptized. As is often the case, family members follow the lead of the influential leader of the family when he/she surrenders their life to Christ and the other members say, "If Dad believes in Jesus, He's good enough for me too!"

5. " three distinct Greek words for offices of the Church...‘episkopos’ which is best translated ‘bishop’ or ‘overseer.’... ‘presbuteros’ which is best translated ‘elder.’ ...‘diakonos’ which is best translated ‘deacon.’

All a matter of how you choose to translate those terms. I believe that "‘presbuteros’ refers to the collective body of leadership of the church including all "offices" and is not intended to be an "office" in and of itself. The support for translating it in that context is later found in the description AND qualifications of the TWO offices and the context used to apply those terms.

I find there to be a much stronger and objective application that renders Scripture as intending to portray TWO office, bishop (pastor, shepherd, etc.) and deacon. Some in the church like degrading the office of Deacon by proposing that it is not be an office relating to "spiritual gifts and application" and that a "third" office of "elder" is intended for that purpose. All of those people will one day have to apologize to people like Stephen and Phillip.

6."No, I was taught that anything connected to Catholicism was evil"

Final word (I apologize for dominating dialogue): I imagine, given that your parents and I have much more in common regarding theology than different, that the point was trying to be made that Catholicism and the Catholic Church has MUCH in its teachings which border, if not blatantly, on being cultist and heretical. This is not to say that some have not been able to extract crumbs of truth enough to find a saving relationship with Christ, but many, many, have been led astray from ever having that relationship through the teachings of their having being "saved" by infant baptism, absolution by a Priest, etc. Dangerous stuff.

You mentioned in your profile you like debate. This is meant to be submitted in love with the prayer for God's truth being clarified to us.

rrr



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