“All who love the church must be against it. If you simply love and promote the church, one of the first things you will lose is the church. This is the very first lesson we need to learn in following Jesus, right? You have to lose things in order to save them” (Against the Church, p. 10).
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Pastor Wilson, I haven’t read “Against the Church”, but wouldn’t you say that the right place to be “against” the Church is from within the Church? If so, how do you explain your continuing in a tradition that set itself up parallel to the original episcopate? I’m not trying to be snarky here – I’m a fan of your writing on education (I’ve taught the Wilson/Nance logic text, & love “Recovering the Lost Tools”) and the theological work of your particular circle was a stepping stone on my journey Romeward. I’ve never understood the “Chestertonian Calvinist” or Piper’s “happy Calvinist”… Read more »
I suppose “an” original episcopate would have been more acceptable here in Mablog. Sorry:)
Brians, thanks for the question. I would first agree that the only safe way to be against the church is from within it. On the other question, it seems to me that you are still presuming something about grace, i.e. that the priest has it. There is no where to go where we get to stop believing.
Thank you for the answer, and I think your point is valid. I am presuming that ordained bishops and presbyters bear the authority to forgive sins on earth. This I know because the Bible tells me so:) My point is, is it intellectually honest to teach that we are to reform from within, but remain without, and to lionize those who bailed once they were called to repentance by their bishops? I’m not trying to be abrasive here: this is one of the things that’s really troubled me about CREC ecclesiology. Did the visible, institutional Church stop being the… Read more »
Hi brains! Does your position hold that the visible, institutional church was nonexistent for Eve, Abel, Seth, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Esther and Anna?
Hi Eric – I suppose I’d have to say that it was tied to an ethnicity throughout the OT, but Jesus was the light to the gentiles, sending the apostles as the Father sent Him, and here we are, with a Church that transcends ethnic and national barriers. Not sure where you’re going with this, but I’m interested to see.