Spiritual/Political/Philosophical Blog on the Nature of Truth and Falsehood and Heaven
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| Sunny Days in Heaven Spiritual/Political/Philosophical Blog on the Nature of Truth and Falsehood and Heaven |
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Tuesday, May 14, 2002 Continuity One of the standard defenses of the RCC (but also Orth. and Prot. churches) is that 2000 years of history and doctrine can't be wrong. The 30 million Frenchmen argument. Continuity is proof in the efficacy of the Holy Spirit to maintain truth. Sad to say, though, today we witness a great meltdown of the justification of Authority in the Church - the hierarchy as a group of male officials who are incompetent, immoral, malfeasant, immature, dishonest, deceitful, and just plain stupid. Nor is this some accident of history. We find these same men throughout the history of the Church from the very beginning. St. Athanasius said, "The floor of Hell is paved with the skulls of Bishops." Prior to that we find Paul in arms over the goings on at Corinth because of some coddling of immoral characters; and becoming furious over various Judaizers disturbing his Asia Minor flocks with demanding Gentiles be circumsized and follow Jewish customs. We earlier found Paul lambasting Peter "to his face" (probably more boast than fact) over hypocrisy about a situation Acts tells us was supposedly settled. The Didache, one of the earliest extant church documents, has important warnings about visiting preachers and their self-serving ways and parasitic natures. Everywhere we look in the early Church, whether it is in the letters of Clement about the same Corithinians not doing what he wants and expelling an elder from their group, or Ignatius complaining of this or that group (not to mention the Nicolaitians in Revelation whom nobody can quite identify), we have conflict, dissent, power seeking, corruption, immorality, and, supposedly, false teaching. That being the case, why would anyone require another to believe that out of this miasma of sin and absurdity, Truth would shine like a flawless diamond in every area of dogma and doctrine? If the men directing the Church from the start were as deeply flawed as the men who are directing it today, the argument of continuity is not confident or reassuring. 2) Another obvious criticism in the fallacy of Continuity is that other, even older, religions continue to flourish much as they always have believed. The Holy Spirit must be protecting them, too, then. Otherwise, the Satanic accusation that the Evil One maintains these parodies of Truth to confuse souls, strains credulity and demands that we abandon reason and rational judgment. 3) The confidence that God micromanages our affairs and institutions is difficult to prove or account for against the evidence of history where God appears equally impassive - not only in history, but in individual lives. Just as there are certainly countless miracles and answered prayers, there seem to be even more unanswered prayers and acts of cruelty, loneliness, and seeming abandonment on the part of diety towrds people. 4) The only reliable or effective method of spiritual and emotional development comes from prayer. Work and study are helpful and necessary, but no substitute for prayer. If there is one thing which I know that God guides disciples in - it is prayer, meditation, contemplation. The Church can record the work of many in this area, but it's not always that good of a guide or teacher. Certainly not as wise or knowing as God is. As much as I love, respect, and admire other people for their work in the Church, their concern, and loyalty - ultimately, it's between God and me as to how much progress I will make. Any amount of bias, prejudice, or adherence to verbal formulas about Truth are likely to prove obstacles to understanding and development of faith. posted by Mark Butterworth | 1:19 PM | |
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