Insert Brain Here.

So, I am a reader of RELEVANT magazine and sometimes like it, sometimes not so much. In the July-August 2009 issue, there is an article titled, "Insert Soul Here." The article deals with faith and doubt and admonishes the reader to doubt and question all things, and that such actions lead to true faith in God, rather than faith in our own faith.

While I agree with some of the basic points made by David Dark, I was floored by one of the final paragraphs. Here is how it reads:

"And far from being a tradition in which doubts and questions are suppressed in favor of uncritical, blind faith, Christianity is a robust culture in which anything can be asked and everything can be said. The call to worship is a call to complete candor and radical questioning. Questioning the way things are, the way we are and wondering about the way things ought to be. As G.K. Chesterton observed, the New Testament portrays a God who, by being wholly present in the dying cry of Jesus of Nazareth, even doubted and questioned Himself. (italics and bold mine) The summons to sacred questioning-like the call to honesty, like the call to prayer, is a call to be true and to let the chips fall where they may. Like the call to authenticity, it is deeper than the call to sign off on a checklist of particular tenets or beliefs. It is also more difficult."

This paragraph implies many disturbing things about our Lord. First let's put this in context. I can only assume that Mr. Dark is referring to Christ quoting the beginning of Psalm 22 at his crucifixion, "O God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" To say that this is the Creator of the Cosmos doubting in the love and salvation of the Father is, at best a gross misunderstanding of scripture, and at worse...
To stop reading, or thinking, of this Psalm after the first line is to miss the point of our Lord. Christ is quoting this Psalm to show his fulfillment of prophecy, as well as affirm his hope in God. Reading further the Psalmist proclaims, "You who fear the Lord, praise Him. All you seed of Jacob, glorify Him; fear Him, all you seed of Israel. For He has not despised nor scorned the beggar's supplication, nor has He turned away His face from Me (God did not turn his face away from Christ at the hour of his death!); and when I cried out to Him, He heard me."
I believe that the type of statements Mr. Dark has said lead to a misrepresentation of the nature of Christ. The Church has always taught that Christ is one person with two natures!
This means He is both fully God and fully Man. The only way Christ could doubt His divinity (don't forget that he is God) is to split him into two persons. To say that his wills were split between two persons, which is what I believe Mr. Dark is implying in his thought process, whether intentional or not, is to follow the way of the those who followed Nestorius in the 5th century and denied the fourth Ecumenical Council of the Church! There is nothing new under the sun and I pray we use our brains and not go the way of Emergent nonsense! Doctrine is critical and so is the preservation of what has been taught from the beginning (1 John 2:23-25).

Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy.

One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church

More notes about the Creed:

And I believe in One holy Catholic and Apostolic Church

I believe
• Again meaning “I stake my life on this”
• “One” is used again for the third time. This is to exclude purality

Church
• Ecclesia – Called out ones (called out of worldliness)
• The Church is not a building, it is people
• The Church is visible. It is not an idea. It is not a set of theological beliefs.
• We come from the Jews and they were visible. You were either Jewish or you weren’t. You could circumscribe the community and you can circumscribe the church.
• We are the Body of Christ. Not the club of Christ or the Society of Christ, etc. We are living stones being built into a spiritual house.
• We are literally the flesh and bone of Christ. We are one flesh and there is one head controlling the body.
• Christ says to Saul, “Why are you persecuting me?” He did not say, “My followers”, or “My organization”, etc.
• We know where the church is. We do not know who will be in it.

Westminster Confession Chapter 25
• Of the church, the catholic or universal church which is invisible consists of the whole number of elect…
• The church are true believers scattered about through the various expressions of Christianity. The church is dismembered, you don’t even know where the lines are. It won’t be clear until the end of the age who is in the church.
• The Orthodox says No! That is not right! If the Head were circumscribable, it does violence to that idea if we say the church (the body) is not also circumscribable.

The Orthodox Church says she is the church not because of her beliefs, but because it is on her birth certificate!

The Major Departures
• Non-Chalcedonians (5th Century)
o Fourth Ecumenical Council (451) confirmed Christ’s dual nature. Nestorius was the chief heretic and says that Christ only had a divine nature.
o The Egyptian churches (now referred to as the Coptics) did not accept the decision of the council. They said that to believe Christ has 2 natures is blasphemous. They then departed from the Church.
o 1 John 2:19. People left the faith. They were not wished well, nor did the apostles pray that God would bless their expression of the faith.
• Latin
o Reformation

Holy Spirit and the Creed

More notes:

And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, and Giver of Life, Who proceedeth from the Father, Who with the Father and Son together is worshipped and glorified, Who spake by the prophets

Acts 2
• Sound from heaven filled the whole house and divided tongues as of fire sat upon each of them.
• This happened on Pentecost
• Church says this was at least the 11. When they spill out into the streets, it is the Jewish feast of Pentecost. This was a reversal of the confusing of the languages at Babel.
• Now all the world can hear the proclamation of salvation.

God has revealed Himself as a communion of three persons sharing the essence of God.

The word “spirit”
• In Hebrew the word is “breath or air”
• Holy Spirit is the third person of God
• The Triune nature of God is foreshadowed throughout the OT.
o Genesis 1:26; Genesis 18 (2 angels and the Word); Psalm 33:6; Isaiah 6 (who will go for us); etc.

The person of the Son and the Person of the HS are each unique and have their source in the Father. I love you !!!!!!

Activity of the Holy Spirit
• Prior to descent on Christ, the Spirit would come upon particular people at particular times for particular tasks.
• However, there was a prophecy of a general outpouring. Joel 2:28; Ezekial 36:26
• Paraclete – Advocate, Helper, Counselor, Comforter

Christ’s dialogue with Nicodemus
• Water and the Spirit
• He is speaking of how the Spirit is the Giver of Life

The Holy Spirit is confessed as Lord just like Christ

Who proceeds from the Father
• John 15:26

Filioque clause (Which adds “and the Son” )is rejected by the Orthodox Church. This makes the Holy Spirit subordinate to the Father and Son
Rejected for Theological reasons
• St. Augustine was a great teacher and influential writer, but the Orthodox see some major errors in his theology: He described the Trinity as mutual love between the Father and the Son. He says this love is the Holy Spirit. This is rejected by the Orthodox Church
• This leads to depersonalization. God is three persons, not two persons and an emotion or feeling!

Rejected for historical reasons too
• Arianism (Christ is a created being) hung around longer in the West
• The West was beginning to be taken over by Barbaric tribes. These tribes which were converting held onto Arianism. This was another reason why it held in the West for so long.
• Filioque was inserted to prove that Christ is equal to the Father. However, this is added without the concensus of the universal church. It was rejected by the East because it makes the Holy Spirit less than the two others in the Godhead. The Bishop of Rome initially rejected the clause, but by the 9th century, it is accepted in Rome. This is a HUGE first issue for the Great Schism.
• This originated in Toledo, Spain circa 500 AD

Quotes I Love!!!

Here are some quotes that I have come to love:

Come, my Light, and illumine my darkness.
Come, my Life, and revive me from death.
Come, my Physician, and heal my wounds.
Come, Flame of divine love, and burn up the thorns
of my sins, kindling my heart with the flame of love.
Come, my King, sit upon the throne of my heart and reign there.
For thou alone art my King and my Lord.
-St. Dimitrii of Rostov


O Trinity, uncreated and without beginning,
O undivided Unity, three and one,
Father, Son and Spirit, a single God:
Accept this our hymn from tongues of clay
As if from mouths of Flame.
-From the Lenten Triodion

God's name is not known, it is wondered at.
-St. Gregory of Nyssa

Again we pray that as thou didst deem a lowly cave to be a fit dwelling for the Lord Almighty, so thou wouldst ever make our souls and bodies temples worthy to contain the uncontainable God.
-From Paraklesis service from the Feast of the Nativity

The blameless Lady was amazed at the height of the mystery, in truth past speech, that covered the heavens with knowledge, and said, "The heavenly throne is consumed in flames as it holds thee; how is it, then, that I carry thee, my Son?"
-Also from Paraklesis of the Feast of the Nativity

Redemption and the Creed

It's been a while since my last post. So sorry. I promise to be more regular from now on...

These notes are from about a month ago. This class really blew my mind. I feel as though my eyes are being opened to the true reality that exists in Christ. I have been a believer for about 9 years and so many things that didn't seem to fit are piecing together.

The one thing that stood out most to me this week (if I had to choose one) is the difference in the East and West in regards to who or what is the great enemy. The west would say (traditionally) that the great enemy is Satan. While he is the deceiver and liar, the enemy Christ came to defeat was death! He has entered into it and conquered it for us.

Here are the notes:

…And was crucified fro us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried;
And the third day He rose again, according to the scriptures.

Redemption
• Dictionary: To compensate for the bad faults of something. To gain or regain possession of something in exchange for payment.
• Comes from middle English. Means to buy back
• Who did Christ pay the price to?

Why did He do it? Why did He come to earth?
• 4 Descents of Christ (4 icons)
o First descent is in the form of a person. Icon of the Nativity.
• It is a theological statement
• Notice the cave appears to be in the heart of the mountain. Somehow it is central. There is darkness in the cave.
• He is sort of wrapped as a mummy and his manger is as a coffin. Jesus, Who did not have to die, came in order to die. It is seen even from His birth.
• He was not under the sentence of death, but came into it.
o Second Descent is into the waters of the Jordan. Icon of the Theophany
• Crucial turning point in His life. He is about the age of 30
• Not much known or recorded prior to this time.
• Prior to this time He did not publicly appear as Christ.
• John the Baptist baptizes him in the water of baptism in a sinner’s baptism. John’s baptism was for repentance.
• John then points Him out as the Lamb of God. The One Who’s throat needs to be slit to spill his blood.
• Orthodox teach that it is at His baptism that He takes on the sins of the world.
o Third descent is into Death. Icon of Extreme Humility
• This is about the condition of death and our own death
• Christ is standing in a tomb. Our tomb. He has been there already and is in a sense waiting there for us.
• He takes upon Himself our death.
• John 11: raising of Lazarus shows us that death is not how it is supposed to be. We are here seeing our Lord’s response to death and its unnaturalness. In His death, Jesus Christ enters into that cursedness and death and descends into our condition.
o Fourth descent into the dead (or place of the dead) Icon of the Resurrection
• Christ descended to the dead (Hades or Sheol). This is where Christ went.
• We see his victory after his descent to the dead.
• In the icon, He is pulling up Adam and Eve out of the grave. He is Radiant.
• Death is transformed from emptiness into the means by which those who belong to Christ pass into eternal communion with Christ and the Father, for which they were created.

1 Cor 15:3
• I delivered to you that which I have also received.

On another note, Ashley made Amish Friendship Bread and it is delicious! I love her so (I promise it's not just because of her culinary skills)!

Holy God. Holy Mighty. Holy Immortal. Have mercy on us!

Councils and such

This past week's class was a brief overview of the 7 ecumenical councils of the Church. Here is a little overview of my notes:


Councils of the Church

1. Nicea 325
• Nicene Creed in most of its form
• Controversy was Arianism
o Christ not equal with Father

2. Constantinople 381
• In time between, Arianism was at its height
• Creed put in its final form

3. Ephesus 431
• Reaffirmed the Virgin is Theotokos
• Nestorius said she was not Theotokos…christotokos

4. Chalcedon 451
• Important definition of who Christ is
• Monophysite heresy. Mono-one Physite-nature
o Said the natures were some how melded together
• Produced the definition of the Union of the Divine and Human Natures in the Person of Christ

5. Constantinople (second) 553
• Reaffirmed 4th council

6. Constantinople (third) 680
• Heresy of Monothelite. Only one will
• Council said He had to have 2 wills. What has not been assumed has not been healed.
• St. Maximos the Successor
o Tongue cut out. Hands mamed.

7. Nicea (second) 787
• Heresy of iconoclasm
• Icons bear witness to the fact that God became material and took on flesh.


Apart from this, I have been reading For the Life of the World, by Alexander Schmemann. It is a book that describes a sacramental worldview. Living out our lives as priests of the earth and offering everything back to God as he had planned from the beginning. It is very interesting and not very long...whew!

Lord have mercy

Rob Bell and relative theology...

Here are some notes and thoughts from the inquirer's class a couple of weeks ago. It is so great to hear the creed explained in the same context that it was formed.

Creed: The Son of God, the Only-begotten
• John 1:18, 3:16
• Christ is not a creature
• However, the Father is the source, who is unoriginate
• Father and Son share the same life and love: perfectly.
• The only difference between Father and Son is that the Father is the Father and the Son is the Son
• He is the Word of God. This is synonymous with Begotten
• Speech is a symbol of our uniqueness. Matt 12:34. We speak out of the abundance of our hearts. It is wonderful to think that God wanted us to communicate not only with each other, but also with Him

• He is the perfect icon of the Father (icon of the Father). The uncreated Light (the transfiguration)
• He exists in the eternal NOW of the Father. Consubstantial. One Essence. Homoousias.
• Col 1:15

St. Athanasius has become more and more interesting and important to me. It is amazing to read about his life. Here are a couple of bullet points about him:
• Bishop in Alexandria
• Strong opponent to Arianism: Arius was a priest
• Often it was him against the “world”
• Martyred by being eaten alive by lions


An interesting thought that has been popping up in my mind is the unity of the Church. We know the passage in John when Jesus prays for the unity of all believers. I recently noticed something that seemed important to me in this prayer. He asks for all believers to be one as He and the Father are one. This makes me think that the "unity" of the Church should reflect the unity shared between Christ and the Father.

What is the nature of Their relationship? They are unified not just in thought and expression, but also in doctrine. Christ only did and said what he saw and heard the Father do and say. This makes me think that the Church should be unified in doctrine and worship! This also makes ask, "If there is no unbroken doctrinal chain back to the apostles, how do we decide what is essential doctrine that unifies?" There is a HUGE difference between oneness pentecostalism and trinitarian theology. Can these two groups truly be unified?

Who decides what are the essentials of the Christian faith? Let me leave you with a quote from Rob Bell. You decide if it's important or not. We can't sit by while people teach relativism and a social justice gospel:
“What if tomorrow someone digs up definitive proof that Jesus had a real, earthly, biological father named Larry, and archeologists find Larry’s tomb and do DNA samples and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the virgin birth was really just a bit of mythologizing the Gospel writers threw in to appeal to the followers of the Mithra and Dionysian religious cults that were hugely popular at the time of Jesus, whose gods had virgin births? But what if, as you study the origin of the word ‘virgin’ you discover that the word ‘virgin’ in the gospel of Matthew actually comes from the book of Isaiah, and then you find out that in the Hebrew language at that time, the word ‘virgin’ could mean several things. And what if you discover that in the first century being ‘born of a virgin’ also referred to a child whose mother became pregnant the first time she had intercourse? What if that spring were seriously questioned? Could a person keep on jumping? Could a person still love God? Could you still be a Christian? Is the way of Jesus still the best possible way to live? Or does the whole thing fall apart?…If the whole faith falls apart when we reexamine and rethink one spring, then it wasn’t that strong in the first place, was it?"

Lord have mercy