There are a non trivial number of SBC people that I’ve know who consider the Anglican and Lutheran traditions something almost as alien to the SBC as the RCC. It requires a strong misunderstanding of church history but it’s there.

Has anyone else heard this or know of this or experience this?

When Mother Theresa of Calcutta was asked how one could know they were doing God’s will, she told the inquirer to make a fist. She then opened one finger at a time, saying, “To – the – least – of – these …”

The message of the Gospel — what is “new” about the New Testament — is that all of Scripture — in fact, all of human experience — must be interpreted through the prism of this “One Solitary Life” ….

In Islam, there’s a similar movement called “Salafi”. They preach that modern Islam has been corrupted; the only solution is to return to the Pure Islam of the Days of the Prophet, a perpetual Year One of the Hegira. It doesn’t work, and is one of the factors responsible for extreme Islam’s stagnation and backwardness. All it does is provide recruits for the like of al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

Matter of fact, I don’t like the way this field is laid out at all: lets move all the wheat we have left to another field, re-plant it, and when Jesus comes here, we’ll just take him to the new field and he’ll be really impressed because he won’t have to do anything! — Pat Lynch

That sounds a lot like the Russian Army anecdote about the visiting general. The entry to the army base the General was visiting was lined with trees — only all the trees had died. What to do?

“Quick — paint all the dead trees green and we’ll drive him by them really really fast! He’ll never notice!”

How is it, then, that we are all still wrestling with Adam’s sin, as if that were anything but a small part of a teaching story that the Ancients told around the fire at night for the benefit of the children …?

Yes, Jesus did suffer the “death,” and for a moment in eternity he became sin for us so that we don’t have to suffer any separation from God, ever. But we do daily endure injury and physical and emotional trauma in this life, and we are all in need of Christ’s healing touch. And all Christian sects believe that He now lives in us. We are all “little Christs.” He is still “incarnate” in our bodies.

So while we each pray and wait for Him to touch us, He is waiting for us to reach out and heal each other….

I don’t consider my faith as the rationale for doing what I do, or would imagine that my beliefs explain my actions. My faith is not my excuse or explanation for why I act the way I do.

That’s why I don’t weep over the sins done in the name of Jesus.

I have no interest in reforming, excusing, or even talking about the sins of my past co-religionists. Other people may not like me because of what they did or didn’t do, but I don’t owe them an explanation for some strange Europeans. They’re all as dead as if they never lived. Who cares?

Their thoughts, excuses, rationales, theological bullshitting – I can’t share the grace of a saint’s life, why should I bear the guilt of some dead sinners?

Likewise, I wouldn’t expect that other people’s twice-weekly attendance at one building or another, or their preference of ancient reading material, explains much behind what they do – no matter what creed they make out of it.

We live in today. We’re not smarter, or holier, or more serious about our faith in this generation than we ever have been. We are a stupid tribe of Christians: every once in awhile, somebody reads a couple of Bible verses about holiness and purity and goes nuts being Holier-Than-Thou and trying to throw out the money changers as if that’s OUR job, but it’s not.

That’s why I’m so suspicious of people who do pretend that No Creed But The Bible isn’t just a way to distance themselves from Guilt By Association with past Christian failures.

Protestants are ALWAYS trying to weed the field before they’re told to, criticizing everything that, in their ignorance and itching to prove their ardor is Real and Holy, doesn’t look exactly how they FEEL about the Faith.

Tear out the “Mary Worship”. Grab some hoes, “Indulgences” have to go. Make sure you get rid of “The Real Presence” at the roots. “Monasticism” looks suspiciously like something that grows in somebody else’s field, and we think they’re going to Hell, so NOBODY should be a monk or a nun. Matter of fact, I don’t like the way this field is laid out at all: lets move all the wheat we have left to another field, re-plant it, and when Jesus comes here, we’ll just take him to the new field and he’ll be really impressed because he won’t have to do anything! He’ll see we’ve worked really hard for Him, and he’ll totally melt when we say “Your work was sufficient” and He’ll give us a GREAT BIG HUG and take us out for SUNDAES!! Yeah!!! I love you, Daddy. You’re the best savior ever, Jesus.

It’s nauseating.

It’s also not what he wanted, and it’s something the Jews had a history of doing – disappointing God with shows of piety that don’t help ANYBODY grow, rather than stupid obedience which is what helps EVERYBODY grow.

I’m not calling you out willoh, I’m just saying that I don’t think there really IS a valid way to be a reformer without, first, admitting the full authority of what you wish to reform and letting go of all that self-validating “No Creed But The Bible”-zeal.

“These people, full of the Holy Ghost and taught by the Ultimate Teacher, did what SEEMED right, they did not issue a binding encyclical claiming to speak for God.”

Obviously, issuing binding encyclicals claiming to speak for God SEEMED right – and was evidently guided by the Holy Spirit, as such things have been happening for a MILLENNIUM and helped keep the Catholic Church together.

Ultimately, Protestantism’s root problem is that it doesn’t want to believe that holiness, faith, fervor, and indeed God’s Favor have always existed in the Roman Church and were quite as common in medieval Christianity as during the Reformation and today. By trying to run with ‘holiness’ and ‘being open to the Bible’ as a fresh gimmick (lets call it The Spirit of Revival), Protestantism ceases to be able to explain coherently anything that came before it.

If you can just admit that it would seem God’s been looking after the Catholics every bit as much as he’s been looking after the Jews before them, a lot of this “additional doctrines” talk sort of explains itself away.