Today is Independence Day. Mikey went to a parade where someone was carrying a cross with an American flag flying from it. Does that disturb you? Does the image above disturb you?
It should.
Look, there’s nothing wrong with patriotism and loving your country. I love the USA and I love living here. I love it so much that I have dedicated almost 16 years of my life to serving it in uniform.
There’s also nothing wrong with allowing your faith to inform your citizenship. I make decisions on who I vote for based on my faith. I make decisions on things I support based on my faith.
The problem comes when those two things get combined into Christian Nationalism. From the linked article, “Christian nationalism is the belief that the American nation is defined by Christianity, and that the government should take active steps to keep it that way. Popularly, Christian nationalists assert that America is and must remain a “Christian nation”—not merely as an observation about American history, but as a prescriptive program for what America must continue to be in the future.”
There’s a lot of problems with that idea. First, there’s only one nation that is identified as “God’s chosen people”, Israel…but God only blessed them as long as they obeyed Him. America is not Israel, and the truth is that most of the people in our nation who call themselves “Christian” don’t even obey God. Why should God bless us?
Second, we were never a “Christian nation.” We might have been a nation of Christians at one point, but it was never the plan to only recognize Christianity. That’s the whole point of freedom of religion in the First Amendment. And let’s not forget that freedom of religion was not why we fought The War of Independence. There were certainly people in the early days of the colonies that came to flee religious persecution in England, but then they practiced religious persecution here (see Massachusetts). In fact, there were only two colonies that built religious freedom into their framework: Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. It was because of them that religious freedom was enshrined in the Constitution. No, the reason we fought a war was over money…taxes to be specific. Money is the real god of America.
Finally, Christian Nationalism is normally about what makes the person proclaiming it comfortable. I’ve never heard it expressed as a desire to see the nation follow Jesus. I’ve always seen it expressed as “I don’t like thing thing (fill in the blank), so we should force people into my view of Christianity.”
I asked at the beginning is the idea of flying a flag from a cross or the image at the beginning disturbs you. For many, it doesn’t. Would it disturb you if it was an image of Jesus, bleeding and dying on the cross, draped in an American flag? Doesn’t that strike you as somewhat heretical? Why is taking Jesus off the cross and putting a flag in His place any better?
But here’s my real point: If you’re going to proclaim that we are a Christian nation, or advocate for that, then you had better act like it. The thing is, that is probably a lot different than what most Christian Nationalists might think.
Jesus didn’t come to overthrow the Roman government. He came to die for them. He didn’t come to make Judea the preeminent nation in the world. He came to die for the world. He didn’t come to change the immoral practices of the Romans. He came to die for them.
The early church didn’t march for freedom. They died for those who persecuted them. They didn’t try to change laws. They provided for those who were being harmed by those laws (the poor, slaves, abandoned children). Interestingly, as they laid their lives on the line for others (physically and financially), it changed the hearts of everyone around them.
Are you willing to sacrifice for people who don’t agree with you politically?
Are you willing to sacrifice for people fleeing persecution in other countries?
Are you willing to sacrifice for others being mistreated?
Carrying a cross with a flag on it will change nothing. What will make America a Christian nation is when people outside the kingdom of God see us doing what God commanded…feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, healing the sick, and loving those that no one else will love. When our actions match our words, THEN things will change!
In February of this year, the promotion list for LTC came out and my name was on it. Just last week, the Federal recognition of this promotion was published and I officially got to wear the rank of LTC. This is sort of a big deal in the Army and it took a lot of work to get here. I wanted to share this story.
In January of 2007, I sat down to listen to the State of the Union Address given by President George W. Bush. We were 6 years into the War on Terror and during the speech, he said,
A second task we can take on together is to design and establish a volunteer Civilian Reserve Corps. Such a corps would function much like our military reserve. It would ease the burden on the Armed Forces by allowing us to hire civilians with critical skills to serve on missions abroad when America needs them. It would give people across America who do not wear the uniform a chance to serve in the defining struggle of our time.
This really inspired me. I had been serving as a student pastor for a while and had been at James Island Baptist for 2 years. The idea of having a way to help in the War on Terror in some meaningful way appealed to me. This is partially because there is a long military history in my family. I actually looked at joining the Air Force as a chaplain as I prepared for seminary, but in the early 90’s, they told me, “Unless you’re black or female, we don’t need you.” I looked into it again in the late 90’s, but nothing came of it.
In the months following President Bush’s speech, I searched for any information on the Civilian Reserve Corps, but nothing ever happened. As I searched, the National Guard popped up. I started looking at the Air National Guard because I thought it would be cool to be a pilot (a lifelong dream), but I was too old. I started looking at the Army National Guard and came across their chaplaincy page. At the time, the Army National Guard was desperate for chaplains. Across the nation, they were about 300 down, and the SC Army National Guard was at half strength. I looked at the requirements and thought, “This is something I could do!”
In June of 2007, Marilyn and I were at a movie and one of those “Citizen Solider” commercials played on the screen. I leaned over to her and said, “What would you think if I did something like that.” She responded, “Well, let’s pray and see what happens.” So we did.
I contacted the regional chaplain recruiter in Atlanta, and he put me in contact with the Special Branches recruiter in SC. Then I talked to the pastor of the church where I worked. He was not thrilled with the idea. He told me out of the gate that if I chose to join the Army National Guard as a chaplain, then I was choosing not to work at his church any longer. I made it clear that National Guard chaplaincy was not a full-time job, but that didn’t matter. Now, in his defense, he didn’t really understand what it meant to be a chaplain. Neither did I, and the state chaplain at the time was not a whole lot of help. Regardless, I knew that if I pursued the chaplaincy, I would be fired.
This was big moment of faith for me. The pastor had decided that I wanted to do it for money. Was that my motivation? Was this some sort of mid-life crisis? Or was it really a calling from God? Marilyn and I spent a lot of time praying because making this decision had real world consequences and if it wasn’t God’s will, I needed to walk away.
As the year progressed and we moved through the steps to accession, it became very clear that this was exactly God’s will. It was also very clear that I was going to lose my job. I was reminded of this every week at our staff meeting. I was told that all of the elders of the church agreed with the pastor. I searched and searched for other work, but nothing was panning out. I was scheduled to swear into the Army on 20 December, 2007 and I was reminded that the end of December would be the end of my employment with the church. As we entered December, I had no job and no prospects. All we had was the clear knowledge that this was what God was calling us to and the faith that He would provide for our needs.
On the second Sunday in December, the pastor scheduled a meeting with the staff, the elders, and the various ministry leaders in the church. We did not vote on things in this church, but he would often get the feel of things from these leaders as he prayed through decisions. This one was a little different. He told me that he wanted me to share why I felt like God was calling me to do this and then he would share why he didn’t believe it was going to work for the church. Then he would open it up to the group for discussion and a non-binding vote to see where people stood in the room. He reminded me that all the elders were on his side and that the vote would go his way, so my last day at the church was 31 December. This was just a formality.
We entered the meeting and it started exactly as he described. I talked, and then he talked. Then he opened it up to the room, starting with the elders. The first elder stood up and began to share how he was an Army veteran, how his sons served, and how important it was. I waited for the “but”…“The military is great, but this isn’t going to work for us.”
It never came. Instead, God stepped in.
He went on to say that he didn’t see why this was a problem, how he felt like my service would not only benefit the Army, but also the church, and how he fully supported my decision.
I was stunned. To be clear, I had spoken to no one about what was going on. I had learned years before that I was much better off letting God handle things than trying to deal with them myself. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
What happened from there was a back and forth as various people shared their support of lack for my decision. In the end, the room split 50/50. The next morning we had staff meeting and after we were done I asked the pastor, “What now?” He said, “I’m okay with being wrong, so we’ll just see how it goes.” God didn’t provide another job because I didn’t need it. He wanted me to stay right there! God took what could have felt like a huge defeat and turned it into a massive victory.
Jump forward 5 years to 2012. I had deployed and returned to SC. I had promoted to MAJ and had finished my first phase of ILE (Intermediate Leader Education). ILE is the course that all majors must take to promote to LTC. I took Phase One in residence at Ft. McCoy, WI. It was a fairly easy two weeks. Phase Two was much harder and longer and I had to do it online. I began this phase in the summer of 2012, right around the time I had to give up my full-time job with the SC Army National Guard (that’s a different story). I was working 4 part-time jobs and in my “spare” time, I was trying to do this course. It was extremely hard!
I was about 2/3 through when I got called to The Waters Church in TX. One week before we moved, my mother died, we moved, and I had to do an interstate transfer to the TX Army National Guard. That process took FOREVER (6 months). During that transition, I was unable to do anything in the class. Once we finally got everything settled, moved and transferred, I went to jump back into the class…only to be told that some of the curriculum had changed and I would have to start Phase Two over. That was very discouraging and it was not easier the second time! That was about January of 2014.
I started over and was at about the same place in Phase Two when we found out we were going to have to move again because The Waters couldn’t pay me any longer. This meant months of looking for a job, trying to help my family, preparing for another interstate transfer, etc. My mind wasn’t on ILE and it went to the back burner. God was faithful as we moved (that’s another story), and we moved to NC. Again, the transfer took FOREVER, so it was well into 2015 before I got back into ILE…
…only to be told that I couldn’t continue. They told me it had been too long. I had to disenroll, reenroll, and start over from the beginning of Phase One. I was devastated! It wasn’t any easier the third time, either. That process of figuring all that out and making it happen took many months, so now it was about halfway through 2016. I started working on ILE AGAIN, but my heart wasn’t in it. The only motivation I had was that I needed to get it done so I could continue to serve in the Army.
On a side note, when you get promoted in the Army, there’s a promotion board that meets and looks at a whole bunch of things. One of the things that MUST be complete is the education required for the next level. An officer goes to a promotion board in the 5th year of their rank. If they don’t get promoted then, they get looked at again on their 6th year. My first look was in November of 2017…
…which was the year everything in our lives exploded. That was the year that the church mafia at First Baptist Church rose up to drive my family out. It was the year that I had two deacons and a sheriff at my house with a termination letter. It was the year that the church took my wife and I to court to have us evicted from the parsonage. From September of 2017 to September of 2018, I didn’t have full-time employment.
Needless to say, all my energy and effort was aimed at keeping my family afloat and together. ILE was the least of my concerns, and I went to that first board without my education complete. It wasn’t that I didn’t care. I only had so much bandwidth to deal with everything burning down around me, and that was the last of my concerns.
God provided me a job in 2018 as the Yellow Ribbon Program Manager for the NC Army National Guard, and I started attacking ILE with a vengeance. However, Marilyn was really struggling. I describe it as her being in a spiritual and emotional coma. It wasn’t her fault, but she needed to focus on her healing and that left me managing getting Ruthie into college, dealing with Mikey, and living in a separate city during the week and having no real support of my own. I talk about this now when I do training on suicide prevention, but I was ready to die. I would not have killed myself, but most months I dressed for drill and told God that if I could die while I was in uniform, I would be okay with that. It was Ruthie who noticed and told me I needed to talk to someone. I got some help, but all of that made my school a struggle. I knew I needed to do it, but I just couldn’t focus…so I went to a second board in November of 2018 without my education complete.
At this point, the Army had two options. They could have chosen to separate me. This would have meant the end of my military service AND the end of my Yellow Ribbon job. This was a very real possibility. In fact, I was told this was probably the most likely possibility. The other was that the Army could select me to continue as a Major until I hit my 20 year mark. They might look at me for promotion again if I was done at that time, but that was 8 years in the future, so I would have plenty of time to finish.
It was completely out of my hands. I didn’t get to tell the board all that had happened. I prayed and told God that if He wanted me to continue to serve, then I wanted to do that. However, if He had other plans and this was the end, then I was ready for that as well. I would walk whatever path God laid out for me.
In February of 2019, I received the results. They not only selected me to continue, but did it in such a way that I would be able to go to the board for a third look in November of 2019. I was stunned. This was a clear answer from God, and I didn’t want to ignore it. I attacked my ILE again with a vengeance. There are three phases. I finished phase two that summer and started phase three. There is a deadline when everything has to be in your record for the board to look at. I was getting near completion of phase three several weeks before that deadline, so I contacted the school to let them know. I was going to bang out my last few assignments and I wanted to enlist their aid in getting them graded and getting my diploma so I could get it into my file.
Their response? It takes 90 days to process a diploma.
WHAT?!?!?!?!?
I told them my situation and pleaded for help. They told me it was in the material and I should have planned better. I went back and looked. It was buried in a bunch of documents from the beginning of the school. I never would have found it if I hadn’t specifically been looking for it.
So I went to the board a third time without my education complete.
The board again selected me to continue which included a return to the board in November of 2020. I went ahead and finished my school and got my diploma. However, I was told with certainty that there was no way I was going to get promoted in November. The Army had plenty of senior chaplains and I was 3 times non-select. I didn’t even bother writing to the board.
Again, I talked to God. Here’s the truth: I don’t serve for a rank. I don’t care about the rank. I care about serving God and serving Soldiers. This is a means for me to do that. I told God that if He wanted me to serve as a major for the rest of my career, then I was content to do that. If He wanted me to promote in order to serve in that way, I was content to do that as well. Either way, I was content.
Of course, you know the rest of the story. I was chosen to promote. But the promotion isn’t what’s important. There is no reason I should have gotten this promotion. God clearly has further plans for me in the military, and He chose to make a way. I am reminded of something He told the Israelites. He said at one point that He didn’t choose them because they were greater, or stronger, or better than other nations in any way. He chose them because He chose them.
I feel the same way.
God didn’t owe me anything. All I could do was be as faithful as I could manage, and then rest in His will. I’m not some amazing person. God just chose me because He chose me…against all odds, against all human understanding, and against all evidence.
This promotion belongs to Marilyn and Jesse and Ruthie and Mikey. They have suffered more than they deserved for this. This belongs to the leaders who have been patient with me through these difficult times…many more than I could name right now. But mostly, it belongs to my Savior, who chose me.
After the debacle at First Baptist, we floated around a little trying to find a church home. We eventually landed at New Life Church in Locust for a while. Mikey got involved in their youth ministry and even though we didn’t attend services all the time, he has been a fairly faithful member of the youth ministry for nearly four years. It has been a piece of stability in a sea of instability for him.
He became close to a smaller group in the youth ministry. Among that group, he was sort of the stable influence. They came to him for counsel and advice. He supported them with his words and actions. He sacrificed sleep to be there for them. He gave himself to them.
Recently this whole #superstraight thing hit the internet. You can read about it from two perspectives here and here. Basically, some guy created a kerfuffle because he made up an identity. He said he was only willing to date women who were born biologically women. For this, he was labeled a “transphobe.”
This came up as a topic of discussion in Mikey’s friend group. In the conversation, one of the girls, who is LGBTQ, asked him if he would date someone born biologically male. His answer was something like, “No, so I guess I’m superstraight also.”
Now I want to be clear: We have a set of views about marriage and sexuality based on Scripture. This does not affect how we treat people. I’ve taught the kids that people deserve to be treated with respect and shown the love of God whether we agree with their viewpoint or not. I have taught them that you don’t have to agree to be agreeable. I have taught them that we should be far more concerned about introducing people to Jesus, and being the image of Christ in their lives, than worrying about their behavior. I have more than enough of my own stuff to deal with to worry about anyone else.
To my knowledge, Mikey has never condemned anyone nor has he treated anyone disrespectfully. I’m sure his friends talk about things, and I’m sure he shares his views on those topics
This particular girl told her girlfriend what Mikey said, and the response was this:
Mikey’s “friend” shared it with him. He asked her if she felt the same way. She said, “Yes I do.” His response was, “Then I guess we can’t be friends.” Because he is man of honor, he withdrew from his friends group so that the others wouldn’t feel like they had to take sides between him or her. What he told me was “She needs them more than I do.”
Then he found out that others in the youth group were lining up with her in labeling him a “transphobe.” As a result, he has felt like he just needed to leave the youth ministry completely. This, at a time when I am on the other side of the world and he is emotionally compromised.
Mikey will get through this because he is strong and has a good support network. I am proud of him because he didn’t take the easy road. I am proud of him because he demonstrated love. I’m proud of him because even though he reacted in anger initially, he went back and asked forgiveness for that reaction. But I also told him that this will not be the last time this happens for him, or me…
…or you.
As a follower of Jesus, I look at those outside the Kingdom of God and I want to see them come into the family. I am unconcerned about their behavior. That is the Holy Spirit’s work. I just want to BE Jesus in the lives of those around me.
Politically, I am more of a Libertarian than anything else. I’m a big fan of freedom and as long as someone’s actions don’t hurt someone else, I think we should leave them alone as a matter of course. There’s nuances to that, but that’s my general belief.
However, we seem to be entering an arena where that isn’t acceptable any more. You can’t just let someone be. You have to completely accept everything they believe as well. You can’t just be agreeable, you have to be in complete agreement.
Or you are labeled.
Or you are cancelled.
As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD…and we will continue to show love to others, even when love is not shown in return…
…and Mikey, I love you! You are a great man of God, and I can’t wait to see how God uses you in the future.
I had a conversation with my father last week about Catholicism. We were discussing a free college class I’m taking from Sacred Heart Major University on the Catholic beliefs around Mary. This led into a larger set of questions that we all need to consider:
“Why do you believe what you believe?”
My father’s answer, as mine would have been as a Protestant, was “Because the Bible says so.” That is what all Protestants would say, because that is foundational to Protestant beliefs. the Bible is the foundation of all doctrine, beliefs, and truth. “The Bible says is, I believe it, that settles it.”
But does it really?
Is the Bible the foundation of truth? Well, let’s go to the Bible to see what it says? If you Google “foundation of truth“, you will find that there its only one place in the Bible that uses that phrase. In 1 Timothy 3:15 (HSCB), Paul states, “But if I should be delayed, I have written so that you will know how people ought to act in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.” (emphasis mine)
So what is the “pillar and foundation of truth”? Not the Bible. It’s the church, established by Jesus. I know I’ve read that verse before, but imagine my shock to realize recently what it means. “BUT HOW CAN THAT BE?”, you may cry.
If you are one of those who appeals to Scripture for your beliefs, as I once did, then you need to ask yourself a question: “Where did the Bible come from?” The Scriptures appealed to in the New Testament were the Torah. There was nothing else. There were letters written and passed around, but they were just that…letters. The New Testament canon of Scripture was not settled until the Council of Carthage in 419 (it is quite a bit more complicated than that, but this will suffice). Prior to 419, there were many gospels and letters being circulated and read by the church. The Church decided what would be considered Holy Scripture (specifically so they would know what could be read in the liturgy), what was not Scripture but could be considered beneficial reading (like the Didache or the writings of the early church fathers), and what was heretical (like the various gnostic writings). Let me say that again: The Church. And not just any church…The Catholic Church. If you read a Bible and consider it authoritative, you can thank the bishops of the Catholic Church.
The Church is the pillar and foundation of truth.
In addition, there are many beliefs we hold that are not specifically laid out in Scripture. I want to address two:
The Hypostatic Union – If you don’t know that phrase, don’t worry. It’s a fancy term explaining the nature of Christ. The early Christians knew that Jesus claimed to be God. They also knew He was a man. There was early writing that affirmed both of those facts, but confusion arose in the early days of the church. Was He a man onto which the Spirit of God descended and then departed? I mean, how can you kill God? Others considered any matter evil, so how could God be human. He must have just appeared human. There was considerable debate in the early church over this.
It was not until the Council of Chalcedon in 451 that this question was settled. Jesus is 100% God and 100% man in one person. It had to be so. He had to be 100% man in order to experience humanity completely and therefore completely identify with us. He had to be 100% God because otherwise He could not die for the sins of all. This is not stated anywhere in the Bible. You believe this because The Church said it was so. Which church? Oh right…The Catholic Church.
The Church is the pillar and foundation of truth.
The Trinity – The concept of the Trinity hurts my brain. The Bible alludes to it, but doesn’t expressly state it. All we can see is that Yahweh, Yeshuah, and the Ruach Ha’Kodesh are all expressed individually, and yet are all pointed to as divine. Yet the Bible also clearly states there is only ONE God.
Over the early years of the church, various people tried to explain it. Maybe God appeared as Yahweh in the Old Testament, Yeshua in the Gospels, and came as the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and today. This is called modalism. Maybe there is only one God, Yahweh; and Yeshua and the Holy Spirit are lesser emanations of that One God. This is a sort of tri-theism. There was a lot of confusion because it was confusing.
It was finally settled at the Council of Constantinople in 381. There is one God who exists in three persons; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It was expounded upon in later centuries, but it was in this council that it became doctrine. You don’t believe this because the Bible says so. You believe this because The Church said it was so. Which church? Oh right…The Catholic Church.
The Church is the pillar and foundation of truth.
And if you persist in Sola Scripture, Scripture alone, then you have no basis for denying any doctrine that someone points to the Bible to affirm. Gnosticism? No problem! Jehovah’s Witnesses? Great! Mormonism? Absolutely! Anything goes. Every person who says they’re a Christian becomes their own Church Council and gets to decide what they believe!
Oh, and by the way, if you only accept Scripture alone, then there is no Scripture. There is nothing in Scripture that states what is and is not Canon.
Today is the National Guard‘s 384th Birthday. I read an article today that members of the National Guard were activated in greater numbers than any time since World War 2. These Warriors have been activated for fires, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, civil unrest, and a multitude of deployments. I am one of those numbers this year, as I am writing this from North Fort Hood, waiting on a plane to take me to Kuwait for a deployment.
As I have spent the last month waiting for food or standing in line for equipment or medical things, I look for patches I don’t recognize. I’ve met people from the National Guard in South Dakota, New York, Puerto Rico, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and a host of other states. These men and women have volunteered to to uproot their civilian lives to serve their states and our nation. I am proud to serve with who I consider the best our nation has to offer!
This deployment has been much harder so far than my last. In 2010, I left my family and went to Camp Atterbury for mobilization training. I left in January, so I got to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas with my family before I left. Once I got there, I was extremely busy. I missed my family, but it kept me distracted. Even though we were in Indiana in the snow for 6 weeks, it flew by.
This time, I’ve been sitting at North Fort Hood for a month. We completed most of our training before we came. We could have gotten everything done in less than a week and moved on. Instead, we had to do a two week mandatory quarantine and then wait for a flight. If we leave when we’ve been told, we’ll have been here well over a month. It’s DRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGING!
What adds insult to injury is I cannot really interact with other people here. I cannot lead a religious service because I’m not allowed to intermingle with other units. This has been like a month of solitary confinement…and I’m sure you can imagine how that might impact an extreme extrovert.
I also missed Thanksgiving and I’m missing Christmas…my favorite time all year. In addition, I missed Jesse’s graduation and I’m missing Ruthie’s 21st birthday, Mikey’s 18th birthday, Marilyn’s _____ birthday, and our 25th wedding anniversary. I miss my congregation and leading them in worship. I am sitting here with nothing to do swinging between pride in volunteering to do this mission and intense loneliness. I want to listen to Christmas music and enjoy the season, but every time I do, I find myself fighting tears.
I wonder how it was for Jesus? It makes me think of the Rich Mullins song. Did He feel His isolation from the glories of heaven? Did He feel His isolation for those around Him? Were there days where He keenly felt His alone-ness? I have to believe that He did, because He was fully human. So, I get to join Him in this aspect of His suffering. Maybe I will learn to understand Him a little more through this year, and maybe God will use this time to help Marilyn and I minister to other families.
I have to believe that as well.
May it be so, Lord.
(I intend on blogging more regularly through this year, so please follow me.)
In no particular order, I’m going to talk about various theological issues that might come up between a person who is Protestant and someone who is Catholic. I want to be clear that this is not the main reason that I joined the CCC. I care about theology, but it has become clear to me over the years that practice trumps theology. There will not be a multiple choice test to make sure you believed the right things when you get to heaven. It’s not about what you believe, it’s about WHAT YOU DO that proves what you believe! With that said, here we go…wheeeeee!
I mentioned in an earlier blog my conversations with the Catholic community when my brother was first speaking with them. One of the questions I had was about saints. It fell into two categories:
Doesn’t the Bible say we are all saints? I asked this question of one priest and his response was, “Yes, but don’t you think there are people who walk the path of faith better than others? If that’s true, shouldn’t we hold them up as examples of faithful living?”
When put that way, I would have to say yes…to both questions. And be honest…don’t Protestants have saints as well? I mean, they don’t call them saints, but don’t Protestants have people who they point to as examples of faithfulness? The answer is yes! Billy Graham, DL Moody, Jim Elliott, C.S. Lewis, everyone in Foxe’s Book of Martyrs…I could go on and on. Just because the Catholics use a word that Protestants don’t use to describe those people doesn’t make them any more or less valid.
Why would we pray “to” saints when we should be praying “to” God? This one is more complicated. First, the phrase “praying to a saint” is actually just an older English use of the word “to.” A more modern way to say that would be “asking a saint to pray for us.” That may not help you, but it helped me a lot. Catholic doctrine teaches that saints do not answer prayer directly, but pray with and for us to the Father. More on that in a second.
“But aren’t there people who actually pray TO saints?” Yes, but this is some paganism that has crept into some people’s practice of Christianity and is condemned by the church. That doesn’t mean it all stops, any more than the pagan practices that have crept into a lot of Southern Baptist churches that the SBC would condemn.
So let’s break down the “asking saints to pray” idea. I’m going to do this by asking you, dear reader, to consider some questions:
Are the souls of departed believers currently in heaven? There are Christians who believe that our souls remain with our bodies until the general resurrection, but most Christians would answer yes to this.
Are those departed believers aware of what’s happening here? Hebrews 12:1 speaks of the “great cloud of witnesses” observing our race of faith. The image is that they are in the stands watching us as we run. There is no reason to believe that they don’t, and lots of evidence to say they do.
Would you ask living people to pray for you (family, friends, Facebook, etc)? If your answer is yes, then why wouldn’t you ask someone in heaven to pray for you? They are more alive than we are! They are not distracted by the cares of this world. James 5:16 speaks of the prayers of a righteous person being more effective than regular prayers. They are more righteous than we are because they no longer sin!
Is there evidence they pray for us? Yes! Revelation 24:8 speaks of the angels and the 24 elders bringing our prayers to the Father! It’s a part of what we get to do in heaven!
“BUT,” you may respond, “the Bible doesn’t tell us to do that.” You would be correct. The Bible doesn’t tell us to ask saints to pray for us. It doesn’t tell us not to either. There’s a lot that we do in church that the Bible doesn’t specifically tell us to do.
The Bible doesn’t tell us to separate families in worship by taking the children elsewhere. But many churches do.
The Bible doesn’t tell us to vote. But many Christians do.
The Bible doesn’t tell us to spend a significant portion of giving in the church on the building and staff. But most churches do.
The Bible doesn’t tell us to register with the Federal government. But most churches do.
I could go on and on. There’s a lot that Protestant churches do that has nothing with anything that is specifically commanded in the Bible. In the case of asking saints to pray, it just fits what the Bible DOES say.
In addition, there is a tradition of doing this that goes back to the earliest days of the church. If we accept the concept of the Trinity from the early church, then why would we not accept this widely accepted practice? The truth is that the subjects of the church councils were things that divided the church and needed a resolution to bring unity. Asking saints to pray was never addressed because by the time the councils came to pass, it was standard practice.
I am by no means an expert on this, but this is my understanding as I have made this transition. Please ask you questions in the comment section and I will address them as much as I can.
I was asked in a comment the other day when I was going to talk about theological reasons I chose the Celtic Catholic Church. The truth is that the basic theology of the church is pretty much the same as every church. This is the basic statement of faith for the Celtic Catholic Church:
We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of Heaven and Earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being with the Father, through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation he came down from Heaven; by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again in accordance with the scriptures.
He ascended into Heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father. With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified. He has spoken through the prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church, we acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sin, we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.
This is called the Nicene Creed. It came out of the Council of Nicea in 325 AD and defines the basic beliefs of a Christian. It is succinct and covers all the bases. We say it every week. I love the Nicene Creed and its baby brother, the Apostle’s Creed, because it gives us an easy way to memorize the basics of our faith. (As an aside, I grew up in a denomination that said the Apostle’s Creed every week. When you ask me what I believe, that is my go to answer. I don’t have to guess and I don’t have to remember pages of theology. I can recite a statement that goes back to the earliest days of the Church.)
Back to the original question, I AM going to go into some theological issues over the next few blogs, but I first want to speak a little more to another aspect of authority. Martin Luther is famous for embracing Sola Scripture, Scripture alone. That sounds wonderful, but what does it mean?
Most (if not all) Christians would agree that the Bible is inspired by God. I’m not going to get all the way in the weeds with that, but in broad strokes, they would all agree that God had a hand in passing on the content of the Bible to us. Many Protestants take this a step further and accept a view called Inerrancy. This means that when the writers of Scripture wrote the Bible, those original documents were without error. The idea is that for the Bible to be trustworthy, it must be free from error.
I definitely believe in Biblical inspiration, and I don’t have an issue with the concept of inerrancy. The issue is interpretation. When faced with competing views on what the Bible says, how do we decide what is true?
In the early days of the church, these issues were decided by the leaders of the church. I mentioned Acts 15 last time. There were church councils that met over the years to address various questions of doctrine that arose in the church. However, over the years, especially in the Protestant denominations, the “Scripture alone” concept led to the idea that every Christian, or every community of Christians, could decide on their own what the Bible meant. There’s several huge issues with this:
The Bible has a historical context. All of Scripture was written to particular people at particular points in history. The context in which it was written is vitally important to understanding it.
The Bible was written by individuals. The writers of the Bible had something in mind when they wrote.
The Bible was written in particular languages. There are some parts of the Bible that are exceedingly difficult to translate because we just cannot be sure what various words or idioms meant.
A great example of all this is the passage in 1 Timothy 2:8-15. Here we have Paul writing a letter to Timothy. This passage has been used for hundreds of years to say that women cannot be pastors, among other things. That seems obvious when reading it in English, but Paul didn’t write in English. We are reading an English translation of a Greek copy of a Greek letter written by a man who thinks in Hebrew. In addition, Paul wasn’t writing to a modern audience in America or Europe. He was writing to one man in one church in one city in the First Century. Can we really KNOW what Paul meant or to what situation he was writing? Not without asking Paul. So what do we do?
One option is for every Christian and every church to decide individually how to interpret the passage…
OR
…we can have a central authority that decides how we interpret.
Let me explain with an analogy. Does everyone get to make their own decisions on the length of a foot (12 in)? Of course not! How would that even work? You must have standards for civilization to exist. And everyone doesn’t get to determine for themselves what those standards mean. They exist outside our opinions and undergird our lives.
In the same way, the structure of our beliefs must exist outside our individual opinions. Otherwise, “everyone does what is right in their own eyes”, and we wind up with tens of thousands of denominations and belief systems, many of them at odds with each other.
The Celtic Catholic Church states the following on its website:
The Apostle’s and Nicene Creeds…summaries of faith and doctrine,
Tradition, or the unified voice of the church (which should never contradict Scripture),
Reason and experience
So how does this work practically?
The existence of God – the Bible is clear that God exists.
The Trinity – we can infer this from the Bible, but it is clearly expressed in both creeds.
Abortion – the Bible never mentions abortion at all directly, but the unified voice of the church since the beginning condemns abortion and that condemnation is in line with Scripture.
Prosperity Gospel – through reason and experience, some Christians have come to the conclusion that God will only allow good into our lives if we have enough faith. This is not in line with the Bible or the witness of the church since the beginning, so it is rejected.
The Celtic Catholic Church is rooted in a time when there was one, unified voice on Christian faith and practice. That is one reason why I chose the Celtic Catholic Church.
Part 3, Authority or Every Man Does What Is Right In His Own Eyes
Waaaaaaaaaaay back in 1994, I was taking Systematic Theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. I decided to write my term paper on church government. I don’t have the paper, and I’m sure it was a shambles, but my basic premise was that congregational forms of church government were inherently unbiblical. This was an understanding based on Scripture that I held those many years ago. That Scriptural belief is now backed up by years of practical experience.
Years later, I was in youth pastor in a church in Dodge City, KS getting some of that experience. One of my close friends was the youth pastor of the Methodist church, and he kept telling me I needed to leave the SBC and come on over. He had worked in SBC churches for years and had gotten fed up with the fighting that went on. He told me over and over how peaceful it was because the people didn’t vote on everything. I couldn’t do it because of my theology, but he wasn’t wrong.
As I mentioned in my first post, I grew up in a variety of different churches and because my father was on staff at many of them, I got to see “behind the curtain.” There are three major types of church government practiced today:
Episcopalian – This means “led by a bishop”. The word that is translated as “bishop” appears frequently in the New Testament. Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans, Episcopalians, AME Zion, and Methodists all use this form. Each local church is part of a group of churches (diocese) that is led by a bishop. The bishops meet together to make decisions on theology and practice. They also assign and move pastors/priests. The congregations of local churches participate in ministry and work together with the pastor/priest to run the affairs of the local church. No voting.
Presbyterian – This means “led by elders.” The word translated as “elder” also appears frequently in the New Testament. This always means there is a group of elders, often called a session, that makes decisions for the church. I have been a part of independent churches that fall into this category. In larger denominations, several churches are frequently grouped together and led by a Presbytery, and they all will be under the authority of a national organization.
Congregational – This means “led by the congregation.” All decisions in each local church are ultimately made by the congregation. Sometimes the congregation delegates some of this authority to the pastor or other leaders, but they are the final say. Each church can do whatever it wants, whenever it wants. It might be a part of a denomination, but the denominations have no authority over the local church.
Congregational church government doesn’t appear anywhere in the Bible. The best Biblical argument people can make for it is that since we are each filled with the Holy Spirit, we can each hear from God. Therefore, we should each have a say in what happens in the church.
In theory, that sounds very nice. In practice, it has been a disaster. I have been in congregational churches most of my working life. Congregationalism breeds unrighteousness. It causes division, anger, jealousy, and fighting. Why? Let’s break it down:
Many of the people voting are not followers of Jesus – Jesus was very clear that there will be many who get to judgement and will believe they are Christians. He will say, “I never knew you.” Our churches are full of people who say they are Christians, but are not. They are not making decisions on the mission and ministry of the church based on God’s leading, but their own preferences.
Many of the people voting are infant Christians – Maybe they have truly chosen to follow Jesus, but it takes time to learn to hear His voice and separate it from your own. It takes time to wash your mind of worldly ways of thinking. We don’t allow 5 year olds become congressmen. Why would we let “5 year old” Christians make decisions on direction of the church? As an aside, age doesn’t make any difference. Just because someone made a decision to follow Jesus at a revival 50 years ago doesn’t mean they have matured at all. They can still be making all their decisions on emotion and selfishness.
Voting creates winners and losers – Whenever you vote, unless the vote is unanimous, someone loses. Sometimes that leads to people just leaving. Other times it creates a minority group that sows dissension.
From a strictly Biblical perspective, there is no place where congregationalism is practiced. Throughout Scripture we see the following:
Prior to the tabernacle, it was strictly tribal and led by the fathers and leaders of the tribe.
Once Yahweh called Israel out of Egypt and they built the tabernacle, God spoke to one leader who then passed on that information to the rest of Israel. This system continued to the building of the Temple, through the time of the prophets and into the exile to Babylon.
When Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the Temple and took the people into exile, they had a moment of crisis. How were they to worship Yahweh if they had no ability to make sacrifices? It was during that period that the synagogue system developed. Let me elaborate on this for a minute…
Worship in the Temple happened daily, but it wasn’t something that every Israelite everywhere could come to weekly. They all came for the four Feasts of the Lord where God told them to come to Jerusalem. So what did they do week after week in their local villages? I’ve often wondered that. The Bible doesn’t really say. Could they have done something with just their own families? Definitely. Would they have joined with others in their village to worship Yahweh and learn about Him? I think that is probable. In fact, I don’t believe the idea of the synagogue was brand new in the Babylonian exile. I believe that they took a practice that had become common in the nation and used it to develop a more formal system.
By Jesus’ day, the synagogue system was well developed. There was a group of 70 religious leaders, the Sanhedrin, who led the nation. Were there factions in the Sanhedrin? Yes…at least two, maybe three. But they were all still Jews. One faith. Were there multiple synagogues? Yes. In fact, there was one in every town and village in Israel, and in every pocket of Jews in the Roman Empire. If you went to any synagogue in any town in the Roman Empire, it would function basically like every other synagogue. They did things the same way and they believed the same things. Decisions made by the Sanhedrin were applicable to every single synagogue.
Now I want to be clear…the Sanhedrin became completely tied to Rome and was quite corrupt by Jesus’ day, but the fact remains that all the decision making was done there and there was no movement in the synagogues to break off and form their own denominations apart from the Sanhedrin.
Before Jesus ascended to heaven, He left His authority with the church. Not every individual…the entire church together. You see this practiced several times in Acts, but most notably in Acts 15. A question arose, the council in Jerusalem met, prayed, made a decision, and it was applicable to every church everywhere.
A PERSONAL STORY
To share what congregationalism looks like at its worst, allow me to share a personal story. I became pastor at a church in 2015. This church had a reputation in the community of strife. They had already started to process of amending their bylaws and in the process they chose to make some pretty significant changes. Unrighteous things were said in business meetings but when it came to the vote, only 6 people voted against it, mostly because some of the changes took away their power to run the church.
The next year we grew dramatically, from about 40 to over 100. The decision was made by the leadership to hire a part-time staff person. The same 6 people voted against it. This was followed closely by a vote for the budget and guess what? 6 people voted against it.
Now anyone with a grain of sense can see what’s happening here. A small group of people were angry because things weren’t going their way. This group had caused major issues in the past, and as the church grew, their power waned and they knew it. So in 2017, they went into action. My wife said at one point that it was like a well-oiled machine. While I was gone for annual training, they got together and planned an ambush. They drove out all the people who had come into the church under my ministry, fired me, and then took my wife and I to court to evict us from the parsonage. They got what they wanted, a church that makes them happy that they can control.
Now many people in congregational churches would say, “That’s horrible, but my church isn’t like that!” That may be true. I’ve had national leaders tell me that what happened to me and my family was the worst thing they had ever heard happening to a pastor. This was the brief version…it’s much worse. But that’s like saying, “I know your brain cancer was really bad, but my cancer isn’t like that.” It’s still cancer! The only reason things are generally peaceful in some congregational churches is that 1) the people with power are happy with the way things are and 2) people who want something different either never come or leave when they realize they cannot make any change.
I pick on Baptists a lot because it’s what I know best. Baptists are known for fighting so much that when people tell me they attend a Baptist church, they always follow it up with a statement like, “But we’re not like most Baptist churches!” It’s such a cliché that many Baptist church plants don’t put the word “Baptist” in their names so people can get a chance to know them before they assume things about them. Don’t we see an issue here?
The “every man does what is right in his own eyes” version of Christianity that is practiced in Congregational churches is wrong, unbiblical, and a stain to the name of Christ. Now let me be clear…there are many Godly people in Congregational churches. I am speaking of the system, not the individuals.
As I prayed about what to do, I was faced with two choices:
Start my own, independent church. Honestly, I would have enjoyed that immensely. The problem is, now I’m doing the very thing that is wrong in so many churches. I am creating a church that suits me and my preferences. I want to say that my preferences are Biblical, but I realize that I’m just doing what’s right in my eyes.
Start a church that has an authority structure built in. So I start looking back in church history. I could join the Methodist church like my friend I mentioned earlier, but if I’m going to be Methodist, why not be Anglican, which is where the Methodist church came from? And why does the Anglican church exist? Oh yeah, because Henry VIII wanted to have a different wife and the Pope wouldn’t let him divorce (I’ll talk more about church and government later).
So I kept going back and landed on Celtic Catholic, a church with ancient authority predating the supremacy of Rome that goes all the way back to the apostles. And that’s one reason I chose the Celtic Catholic Church.
The following joke was voted the funniest religious joke of all time in a survey.
Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, “Don’t do it!”
He said, “Nobody loves me.”
I said, “God loves you. Do you believe in God?”
He said, “Yes.”
I said, “Are you a Christian or a Jew?”
He said, “A Christian.”
I said, “Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?”
He said, “Protestant.”
I said, “Me, too! What denomination?”
He said, “Baptist.”
I said, “Me, too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?”
He said, “Northern Baptist.”
I said, “Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?”
He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist.”
I said, “Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region?”
He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region.”
I said, “Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?”
He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912.”
I said, “Die, heretic!” And I pushed him over.
It’s funny because it’s true! In all seriousness, here’s the question: When Jesus prayed for unity for His followers, do you think He had in mind what we have today?
“I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.”
I don’t think so.
This truth has bothered me for many, many years. I just figured that there was nothing to be done. The genie was out of the bottle, Pandora’s box was opened, and we were stuck with what we had.
Currently, there are around 200 Protestant denominations, according to several sources (here and here). The Department of Defense recognizes about 200 Protestant religious groups as well (if you are interested in seeing that list, let me know and I will gladly share the memo with you). Truthfully, though, this only scratches the surface. There are 3,142 counties and county-type areas in the United States alone. It seems reasonable to assume that there’s at least one independent or non-denominational church in each of those on average. Each of those churches basically represent their own denomination because they each decide for themselves what they believe. I know there are FAR more than that. Now we’re up to tens of thousands “denominations”. In addition, there are many denominations, like Southern Baptist, where each church is independent. Although they have a core set of common beliefs, there is wide divergence from one to another. Now we’re getting into the hundreds of thousands.
I could expand that to other areas in other countries, but the point is that the number is staggering. In the hours before His death as Jesus looked down the ages and prayed for unity among His followers, is this what He had in mind? Was His great hope as He was tortured on the cross that His followers would fragment beyond any recognition? I cannot believe that is the case. He prayed that we would be one as He and the Father are one. Does the Protestant movement represent the unity within the Trinity?
The practical results of this extreme fragmentation are evident:
There are extreme differences in theology, some bordering on heresy.
There is often extreme strife or at the least, cold indifference to followers of Jesus from other churches.
It has created a consumer mentality in the minds of followers of Jesus. Rather than us being a part of the body of Christ in order to serve, we jump from one church to another trying to find that perfect church that makes us happy.
There has only been one time where I felt “one-ness” among Protestants. I was in Dodge City, Kansas and there was only one of each type of church in the town. I was the youth and worship pastor at the SBC church. There were seven youth pastors among the other churches, and we began to meet together for prayer and to do events. We had myself, the Methodist, the American Baptist, the Missionary Church, the PCUSA, the ELCA, and the non-denominational. Instead of seven different youth ministries, it felt like one giant youth ministry with seven pastors. It was amazing. I had never experienced that before and I’ve never been able to replicate it since. Even when we give lip service to unity, there is little unity in practice.
Jesus established ONE church. “There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, in all, and living through all.” (Ephesians 4:5-6) Paul’s calls for unity came at a time where there was a movement toward fragmentation. So what can we do?
The Celtic Catholic Church returns to a time prior to the supremacy of Rome when there was ONE church that had different flavors depending on the region in which it was situated. The various bishops leading each region would come together on an equal basis to make decisions on doctrine and practice that were binding to all churches and believers everywhere. This model of unity most closely reflects the practice throughout the Bible, and that is one of the reasons I chose the Celtic Catholic Church.
Thoughts from the Bald Guy 