Pillar and Foundation

Pillar and Foundation – June 25, 2019

I have long said that our understanding of the Church affects our understanding of all other theology, for she is the divine-human institution established by Christ for us men, and for our salvation, as a hospital for our very souls. The Church is the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:27) The Church is the pillar and foundation of truth (1 Tim 3:15), for which Christ is the cornerstone (Eph. 2:19-20), and is the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 2:21-22). The Church exists to incarnate Christ into the world, for which he is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. We know where the Church is by the marks established by the Church in the fourth century by the words of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed: The Church is One (1 Cor. 10:16-17), Holy (Eph. 3:16-17, 5:27, 1 Pet. 2:9), Catholic (1 Cor. 1:2), and Apostolic (Eph. 2:20, Rev. 21:14).

The marks of the Church identify the foundation upon which the Truth is upheld. If the Church ceases to be one, and she is divided against herself, whether by word, deed, or doctrine, the foundation will fall apart. If the Church lacks holiness, is not set apart from the world in which she exists, and is therefore molded by the world instead of molding the world around her, the foundation will crumble. If the Church does not maintain Catholicity of doctrine, dogma, and teaching; if the Church succumbs to multiplicity of truths; if the Church does maintain a unity of faith, then her foundation will crumble. If the Church does not maintain her apostolicity, that Kerygmatic Charism reaching back through the annals of time to the apostles, that plurality of voices directing the voice and rudder of the Church, unfolding the continuing revelation of the Holy Spirit within its holy abode, then the foundation will crumble. Without her bishops there is no Church, but there is no Bishop without the Church either.

Christ is the way because he is the path that we are to follow. The Church is the way, and baptism is the door. Christ is the Truth, for which the Church is the incarnate body of that Truth, the representative voice of that Truth, and the foundation upon which the Truth finds solid ground. Christ is the life, for he gives life, and gives it eternally. The Church is the hospital for our souls, in which we are healed of our infirmities, and receive that blessed food and medicine: The Eucharist. Christ is simultaneously the path (the Church) and the destination (perfection, τελειότητα) towards which we all strive Godward. Her saints, those holy men and women who have gone before us, are fingers pointing at the moon, guideposts on our journey. It is their voices echoing through time immemorial that encourage and guide us to the end of time.

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Scripture and Holy Tradition

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Scripture and Holy Tradition – May 17th, 2019

I was attacked on Facebook today by a very arrogant, seemingly prideful, and rather belligerent Protestant today. He argued that simply because I did not hold the scripture as the sole source of truth within the context of the Christian faith, that I was somehow in denial of Christ. I eventually had to block him, as there was no reasoning or room for civil discourse. Plus, he kept posturing as some Grand Master of the Christian faith, and claimed I stepped out of my pay grade when I shot down whatever garbage translation he was using by showing him the Greek. I will pray for him.

Placing scripture in its proper place and historical context and understanding is not a denial of Christ. Christ is not the book. Scripture is truth, but YOUR understanding of scripture is not. He argued the understanding of scripture in the early Church, as well as the theology of Christendom, was voted on by mere men, I guess making a de facto assertion that his understanding was somehow superior. To me, this only reinforces how our understanding of Church affects our understanding of Truth.

We should always start with the question, “What did the Church teach,” for truth does not change, and I imagine the Christians of the first four centuries, from whom we get our best commentaries, know better than we do today. Also, we can see how the Church lived, what the Church said regarding them, and understand the same. The Church is the Pillar and foundation of truth, for it is the body of Christ.

I really like the words of Saint Raphael regarding Scripture within the context of Tradition.

“Just as the written word is nothing other than the more brief and at the same time more constant representation of the spoken word, so also holy Scripture can be viewed as the brief and at the same time constant expression of sacred Tradition. Hence sacred Tradition and holy Scripture are thus very closely tied to one another, so that each by necessity requires the other, and the absence of one in these important points is detrimental to the other. In this way, when holy Scripture is disregarded, sacred Tradition runs the danger of distortion because then the human can be mixed up easily with the divine, the profane with the holy, and truth with falsehood. On the other hand, when sacred Tradition is removed, holy Scripture is subject to many misinterpretations because when holy Scripture is left to each one’s free understanding and interpretation, a certain strange diversity within the one and same Christian teaching can hence result.”

~Saint Raphael of Brooklyn.

Regarding the “Perspicuity of Scripture”

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Regarding the “Perspicuity of Scripture” – February 28th, 2019

I have seen the continuous and recurring argument for the “perspicuity of scriptures,” stating that they (the scriptures) are simple enough that they (the one reading them) can come to an accurate understanding of truth contained therein. Yet, one only has to look around and see that such a statement is not proven historically, or even currently within the shattered milieu of mainline and “commercialized” Christianity,

If indeed there was a perspicuity inherent in Holy writ, then whence comes the divisions by way of denominations within the Christian faith? How is it two or three (and even more) can read the same verses, and come to yet different conclusions and interpretations, each of them claiming the inspiration and authority of the Holy Spirit. So, is God divided? Is God a liar? Is one correct their reading and the other two in danger of blaspheming the Holy Spirit by their falsity of association of a lie with the Truth?

What if they are all wrong? What happens when one man’s {or many’s} interpretations stands opposed to over a thousand years of catholicity and teaching within the orthodox Christian faith; over a thousand years of commonly accepted teaching and understanding of the same? Is such a man not arrogant to think that his reading is somehow correct when men far holier than he or I, men who spoke the language in which the scriptures were written; men who lived the culture in which the scriptures were written and understood; men who compiled the selfsame scriptures into the corpus we have today? Is not one who places his own teaching above such as these building his own pillar and foundation upon which he stands, teaching his own truth?

Truth does not change.

The following is a quote from the Patriarch Dositheus of Jerusalem, in 1672, written in response to some of Calvin’s false claims and attributions of writings from other early Church fathers.

Response to question 2

“If the Divine Scriptures were plain to all Christians that read them, the Lord would not have commanded such as desired to obtain salvation to search them; {John 5:39} and Paul would have said without reason that God had placed the gift of teaching in the Church; {1 Corinthians 13:28} and Peter would not have said of the Epistles of Paul that they contained some things hard to be understood. {2 Peter 3:16} It is evident, therefore, that the Scriptures are very profound, and their sense lofty; and that they need learned and divine men to search out their true meaning, and a sense that is right, and agreeable to all Scripture, and to its author the Holy Spirit.

Certainly, those that are regenerated [in Baptism] must know the faith concerning the Trinity, the incarnation of the Son of God, His passion, resurrection, and ascension into the heavens. Yet what concerns regeneration and judgment — for which many have not hesitated to die — it is not necessary, indeed impossible, for them to know what the Holy Spirit has made apparent only to those who are disciplined in wisdom and holiness.”

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