THE WAY: What Every Protestant Should Know About the Orthodox Church. Carlton, Clark. (1997). Salisbury, MA: Regina Orthodox Press.
1. Chapter 2, "Learning to Read" ... "Christ said that He had come to give abundant life to the world, but what kind of life? Biological existence? Life after death? I learned that the life which Christ came to give is nothing less than the life of the Holy Trinity -- or, more precisely, the life of the Father, Who lives eternally as love Himself with the Son and His Spirit. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in Himself; so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself (John 5:25-26).
Because the One Who died on the cross was the Son of the Father -- Life Himself- not merely an innocent man, He crushed forever the tyranny of man's self-sufficiency and loosed the bonds of death. Through Him, man shares in this "life-in-Himself" of the Holy Trinity, life realized as an eternal relationship of love: And this is life eternal, that they may know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent (John 17:3).
After reading Being as Communion, everything else I read about Orthodoxy fell into place. No matter what book I read, every author came back to the central theme of Trinitarian love. I then realized that Orthodoxy is not a set of propositions about God or even a well-planned theological system; it is an organic whole -- a seamless garment. Orthodoxy is in the fullest sense truth, the truth that sets man free! Archimandrite Vasileios, Abbot of the Iveron Monastery on Mt. Athos, sums up the wholeness of Orthodoxy quite well:
Theology does not have a philosophy of its own, nor spirituality a mentality of its own, nor church administration a system of its own, nor hagiography its own artistic school. All these things emerge from the same font of liturgical experience. They all function together in a Trinitarian way, singing the thrice-holy hymn in their own languages. ... There is one spiritual law, which has power over both heavenly and earthly things. All things flow and proceed from the knowledge of the Holy Trinity. All things emerge from the font which is the life of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit from baptism in the death of Jesus. (1)
My world was transformed! Or rather, I was learning to see the world through new eyes. I realized that the "freedom" I had defended so vehemently was not freedom at all, but slavery to my own whims, to my "context," to the necessities of my fragmented nature, and ultimately to death. This fact became increasingly clear to me as I began my second year at Southeastern and observed first-hand the death of a seminary and the inherent failure of Baptist polity to address the truth of the man created in the image of Triune Love". [pp. 60-61.].
2. Chapter 3, "Death of a Seminary".
"Theology of the Month Club"
"Even confessions of faith adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention cannot be considered binding on either congregations or individuals. The introduction to the 1925 Baptist Faith and Message Statement states plainly that such confessions "constitute a consensus of opinion [emphasis mine] of some Baptist body" and that they have "no authority over the conscience." (2) In fact, the drafters of both the 1925 and 1963 statements were explicit in stating the fact that their statements reflected not only a consensus of opinion, but a consensus of opinion at a particular time.
Baptists are perfectly "free" to change their confession of faith whenever and however they see fit:
That we do not regard them as complete statements of our
faith, having any quality of finality or infallibility. As in the past so in the future Baptists should hold themselves free to revise their statements of faith as may seem to them wise and expedient at any time.
This is no mere rhetorical flourish, for Baptists have indeed changed their confessions of faith through the years. Early Baptist confessions were unmistakably Calvinist in their tone and explicitly affirmed double predestination. This was true of Baptist confessions well into the middle of the 19th century. Somewhere along the line, Southern Baptists adopted an Arminian theology of conversion, though they managed to retain the "perseverance of the saints." (3) By the time the 1923 Statement was published, double predestination had disappeared. Had God changed His mind? Of course not. Baptists would be the first to admit that these statements are nothing more than statements of their beliefs. In the early 19th century the majority of Baptists believed in double predestination; in the late 20th century most do not. What will Baptists believe in the 21st century?
In contrast, the Nicene Creed has been read or sung by the Orthodox Church unchanged since its adoption roughly 1600 years ago and will continue to be guarded inviolate until the Lord "shall come again in glory to judge the living and the dead." (4) Those who enter the loving embrace of Holy Orthodoxy do so with the confidence that She will not alter the parameters of Her faith established by the Apostles and holy Fathers or diminish the deposit of faith:
We preserve the Doctrine of the Lord uncorrupted, and firmly adhere to the Faith he delivered to us, and keep it free from blemish and diminution, as a Royal Treasure, and a monument of great price, neither adding anything, nor taking any thing from it. (5)
In free church Protestantism, on the other hand, anything which constrains the individual -- even the truth -- is viewed as a threat to his autonomy. It is no wonder that Baptists have such a phobic reaction to the historic creeds of the Church. The fact that the Nicene Creed and other conciliar definitions of the Church exist threatens the free church Protestant. Why? Because they bear witness to faith that is not a matter of individual opinion and is not subject to revision. The content of those symbols is a threat because it is the negation of the very foundation of Protestantism itself: the individual.
The ontological possibility for the unity of the Church (and, therefore, of mankind) is the very Life of the Trinity. The Trinitarian "even as" defines the Church as persons-in-communion and not as individuals-in-association. The difference between the two is literally the difference between heaven and hell."
[pp. 69-72.].
Notes.
1. Hymn of Entry, (Crestwood, NY: SVS Press, 1984), p. 11.
2. Quoted in the introduction to the 1963 Baptist Faith and Message Statement, published by the Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.
3. James L. Garrett, Jr. notes, "The modification of Calvinism among Southern Baptists may be seen by contrasting the teachings of the leading nineteenth-century theologians (that is, John Leadly Dagg, James Petigr Boyce) with the teachings of the leading twentieth-century theologians (that is, Edgar Young Mullins, Walter Thomas Conner). The clearest surviving aspect of the earlier Southern Baptist Calvinism is the doctrine of perseverance of the saints, known also as the security of the believers or by the less apt, but popular wording, "once saved, always saved." Are Southern Baptists "Evangelicals"?, p. 90. Apparently the contradiction between an Arminian theology of conversion and a Calvinist doctrine of perseverance either does not occur to or does not bother Southern Baptists. Not only is the BF&M a consensus of Baptist opinions; in this case it is a consensus of opinions which are not internally consistent. During the past decade or so, however, a renewed interest in Calvinism has arisen among Southern Baptists. Timothy George, Dean of the Beeson Divinity School of Samford University (Alabama), and Albert Mohler, President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, Kentucky), are two of the most visible leaders in this revival. The Founders Journal is dedicated to disseminating the Calvinist theology of SBC "founders" such as Boyce. Although these modern devotees of nineteenth-century Baptist theology are eager to clothe themselvees in the mantle of Calvinism, it should be noted that their Calvinism is a far cry from that of John Calvin himself or even of Theodore Beza. Even before the open "Arminianization" of Baptist theology early in the twentieth century, the Calvinism of the early Baptists had already been seriously modified, particularly by the influence of continental pietism. For example, the emphasis on personal conversion -- a hallmark of both Calvinist and Arminian Baptist theology -- is utterly antithetical to the theology of Calvin. For the alteration of Calvinism in American revivalism, see Sidney Mead, The Lively Experiment: The Shaping of Christianity in America (New York: Harper & Row, 1963), pp. 123ff. This transformation of Calvinism helps to explain how Calvinism (as it was thus understood) could eventually come to cohabitate happily with Arminianism within the SBC.
4. The text of the Nicene Creed was altered by the Roman Catholic Church in the eleventh century. This is one of the reasons the Orthodox Church is not in communion with the Roman Catholic Church.
5. Letter of the Eastern Patriarchs to the English Non-Jurors in 1718, in G. Williams, The Orthodox Church of the East in the Eighteenth Century (1868), p. 17. Quoted in Ware, The Orthodox Church, p. 204.
IN ERIE PA USA Mr. Scott R. Harrington January, 2012 AD
God save us. Amen.
1. Chapter 2, "Learning to Read" ... "Christ said that He had come to give abundant life to the world, but what kind of life? Biological existence? Life after death? I learned that the life which Christ came to give is nothing less than the life of the Holy Trinity -- or, more precisely, the life of the Father, Who lives eternally as love Himself with the Son and His Spirit. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in Himself; so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself (John 5:25-26).
Because the One Who died on the cross was the Son of the Father -- Life Himself- not merely an innocent man, He crushed forever the tyranny of man's self-sufficiency and loosed the bonds of death. Through Him, man shares in this "life-in-Himself" of the Holy Trinity, life realized as an eternal relationship of love: And this is life eternal, that they may know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent (John 17:3).
After reading Being as Communion, everything else I read about Orthodoxy fell into place. No matter what book I read, every author came back to the central theme of Trinitarian love. I then realized that Orthodoxy is not a set of propositions about God or even a well-planned theological system; it is an organic whole -- a seamless garment. Orthodoxy is in the fullest sense truth, the truth that sets man free! Archimandrite Vasileios, Abbot of the Iveron Monastery on Mt. Athos, sums up the wholeness of Orthodoxy quite well:
Theology does not have a philosophy of its own, nor spirituality a mentality of its own, nor church administration a system of its own, nor hagiography its own artistic school. All these things emerge from the same font of liturgical experience. They all function together in a Trinitarian way, singing the thrice-holy hymn in their own languages. ... There is one spiritual law, which has power over both heavenly and earthly things. All things flow and proceed from the knowledge of the Holy Trinity. All things emerge from the font which is the life of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit from baptism in the death of Jesus. (1)
My world was transformed! Or rather, I was learning to see the world through new eyes. I realized that the "freedom" I had defended so vehemently was not freedom at all, but slavery to my own whims, to my "context," to the necessities of my fragmented nature, and ultimately to death. This fact became increasingly clear to me as I began my second year at Southeastern and observed first-hand the death of a seminary and the inherent failure of Baptist polity to address the truth of the man created in the image of Triune Love". [pp. 60-61.].
2. Chapter 3, "Death of a Seminary".
"Theology of the Month Club"
"Even confessions of faith adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention cannot be considered binding on either congregations or individuals. The introduction to the 1925 Baptist Faith and Message Statement states plainly that such confessions "constitute a consensus of opinion [emphasis mine] of some Baptist body" and that they have "no authority over the conscience." (2) In fact, the drafters of both the 1925 and 1963 statements were explicit in stating the fact that their statements reflected not only a consensus of opinion, but a consensus of opinion at a particular time.
Baptists are perfectly "free" to change their confession of faith whenever and however they see fit:
That we do not regard them as complete statements of our
faith, having any quality of finality or infallibility. As in the past so in the future Baptists should hold themselves free to revise their statements of faith as may seem to them wise and expedient at any time.
This is no mere rhetorical flourish, for Baptists have indeed changed their confessions of faith through the years. Early Baptist confessions were unmistakably Calvinist in their tone and explicitly affirmed double predestination. This was true of Baptist confessions well into the middle of the 19th century. Somewhere along the line, Southern Baptists adopted an Arminian theology of conversion, though they managed to retain the "perseverance of the saints." (3) By the time the 1923 Statement was published, double predestination had disappeared. Had God changed His mind? Of course not. Baptists would be the first to admit that these statements are nothing more than statements of their beliefs. In the early 19th century the majority of Baptists believed in double predestination; in the late 20th century most do not. What will Baptists believe in the 21st century?
In contrast, the Nicene Creed has been read or sung by the Orthodox Church unchanged since its adoption roughly 1600 years ago and will continue to be guarded inviolate until the Lord "shall come again in glory to judge the living and the dead." (4) Those who enter the loving embrace of Holy Orthodoxy do so with the confidence that She will not alter the parameters of Her faith established by the Apostles and holy Fathers or diminish the deposit of faith:
We preserve the Doctrine of the Lord uncorrupted, and firmly adhere to the Faith he delivered to us, and keep it free from blemish and diminution, as a Royal Treasure, and a monument of great price, neither adding anything, nor taking any thing from it. (5)
In free church Protestantism, on the other hand, anything which constrains the individual -- even the truth -- is viewed as a threat to his autonomy. It is no wonder that Baptists have such a phobic reaction to the historic creeds of the Church. The fact that the Nicene Creed and other conciliar definitions of the Church exist threatens the free church Protestant. Why? Because they bear witness to faith that is not a matter of individual opinion and is not subject to revision. The content of those symbols is a threat because it is the negation of the very foundation of Protestantism itself: the individual.
The ontological possibility for the unity of the Church (and, therefore, of mankind) is the very Life of the Trinity. The Trinitarian "even as" defines the Church as persons-in-communion and not as individuals-in-association. The difference between the two is literally the difference between heaven and hell."
[pp. 69-72.].
Notes.
1. Hymn of Entry, (Crestwood, NY: SVS Press, 1984), p. 11.
2. Quoted in the introduction to the 1963 Baptist Faith and Message Statement, published by the Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.
3. James L. Garrett, Jr. notes, "The modification of Calvinism among Southern Baptists may be seen by contrasting the teachings of the leading nineteenth-century theologians (that is, John Leadly Dagg, James Petigr Boyce) with the teachings of the leading twentieth-century theologians (that is, Edgar Young Mullins, Walter Thomas Conner). The clearest surviving aspect of the earlier Southern Baptist Calvinism is the doctrine of perseverance of the saints, known also as the security of the believers or by the less apt, but popular wording, "once saved, always saved." Are Southern Baptists "Evangelicals"?, p. 90. Apparently the contradiction between an Arminian theology of conversion and a Calvinist doctrine of perseverance either does not occur to or does not bother Southern Baptists. Not only is the BF&M a consensus of Baptist opinions; in this case it is a consensus of opinions which are not internally consistent. During the past decade or so, however, a renewed interest in Calvinism has arisen among Southern Baptists. Timothy George, Dean of the Beeson Divinity School of Samford University (Alabama), and Albert Mohler, President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, Kentucky), are two of the most visible leaders in this revival. The Founders Journal is dedicated to disseminating the Calvinist theology of SBC "founders" such as Boyce. Although these modern devotees of nineteenth-century Baptist theology are eager to clothe themselvees in the mantle of Calvinism, it should be noted that their Calvinism is a far cry from that of John Calvin himself or even of Theodore Beza. Even before the open "Arminianization" of Baptist theology early in the twentieth century, the Calvinism of the early Baptists had already been seriously modified, particularly by the influence of continental pietism. For example, the emphasis on personal conversion -- a hallmark of both Calvinist and Arminian Baptist theology -- is utterly antithetical to the theology of Calvin. For the alteration of Calvinism in American revivalism, see Sidney Mead, The Lively Experiment: The Shaping of Christianity in America (New York: Harper & Row, 1963), pp. 123ff. This transformation of Calvinism helps to explain how Calvinism (as it was thus understood) could eventually come to cohabitate happily with Arminianism within the SBC.
4. The text of the Nicene Creed was altered by the Roman Catholic Church in the eleventh century. This is one of the reasons the Orthodox Church is not in communion with the Roman Catholic Church.
5. Letter of the Eastern Patriarchs to the English Non-Jurors in 1718, in G. Williams, The Orthodox Church of the East in the Eighteenth Century (1868), p. 17. Quoted in Ware, The Orthodox Church, p. 204.
IN ERIE PA USA Mr. Scott R. Harrington January, 2012 AD
God save us. Amen.