Included in his discussion is where is truth found and how do we know?
Two things that help me as I reflect on this issue are in the Bible. I Tim 4:15 b "..the church of the living God, the pillar and support (or ground) of the truth." God's word states that the church is the pillar and support of the truth.
Another passage is Eph 4
4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as also ye were called in one hope of your calling;
5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6 one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all.
7 But unto each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
8 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive, And gave gifts unto men.
9 (Now this, He ascended, what is it but that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth?
10 He that descended is the same also that ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.)
11 And he gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
12 for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ:
13 till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a fullgrown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
14 that we may be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error;
15 but speaking truth in love, we may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, even Christ;
16 from whom all the body fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplieth, according to the working in due measure of each several part, maketh the increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love.
17 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye no longer walk as the Gentiles also walk, in the vanity of their mind,
It clearly states in Scripture what He has given us so that we can know truth. He has given us the church and the gifts to the church--so we may have unity of faith and so we may not be tossed about by error. Thus the early church and the church Fathers were part of this--and so forth as time went on. We can't break ourselves from this church with its gifts because then we won't know what books are to be in the Bible, what doctrines or interpretations of the Bible are correct.
from comment 20 here http://www.calledtocommunion.com/2014/01/clark-frame-and-the-analogy-of-painting-a-magisterial-target-around-ones-interpretive-arrow/
In a real sense, when I “chose” Catholicism, for the first time in my Christian life I wasn’t even taking scripture into consideration. Wow, that sounded bad. What I am saying is that for all the beauty and awesomeness of scripture, it is obviously circular to say I am going to go to scripture to get my paradigm about how to interpret… scripture. Even the simple fact of the origin of scripture can’t be found like that. So for me it was as obvious as my nose that I needed to put that book on the shelf (so to speak) while I looked for a larger paradigm… a paradigm that would enable me to pick up that book again and read it within that paradigm. Protestantism (in the main) does not offer such a paradigm that can fit even disjointedly with the facts of history of the early Church, therefore no tu quoque is possible. In all the major Protestant paradigms things always begin with interpreting scripture. This is why as a Calvinist I never bothered to ask where the Westminster Divines got their authority. Looking back this seems like a glaring omission, but when one is beginning the whole inquiry with their own interpretation as a starting point, then when one finds likeminded folks claiming authority, it is easy to forget that they may actually have no claim to authority in reality… in history.
There are, however, a few paradigms which begin within the larger context of history and authority. Once I set the book on the shelf and looked at the actual history of the early Church, just tracing who claimed authority, when, where, why, on what basis, it was not hard to trace the authority through 2000 years of history. Yes, I had to slow down and really look closely at the Great Schism, but for purposes of a Tu Quoque refutation, I may as well be Orthodox *or* Catholic. And of course keep in mind all the claimants to authority we find through history always back up their doctrines with scripture. Even arch-heretics like Arius. Which is why it is crucial to put the book on the shelf before you try getting a paradigm from it. If all you do is duel with your interpretation, you literally are doing nothing different than every heretic ever. Not a very safe place. Not judging between exegesis and interpretations, why was Arius wrong? If I knew nothing about scripture, could I still show that Athanasius was right?
Once I stopped shooting arrows and sloshing paint brushes around and realized that perhaps I should be looking for the target instead, and that no matter what that target looked like… (that is the key)… no matter what the target looked like to aim my arrow true and try to bulls-eye it… that was a paradigm shift.
Once I stopped shooting arrows and sloshing paint brushes around and realized that perhaps I should be looking for the target instead, and that no matter what that target looked like… (that is the key)… no matter what the target looked like to aim my arrow true and try to bulls-eye it… that was a paradigm shift.
No comments:
Post a Comment