Calling for a Return to the Doctrinal Ideals and Kingdom Ethics of the First Reformation
I happened to catch a news story the other day about Amy Grant and how she has completely caved to the Sodomite ethos that now dominates this culture. She is hosting her niece's lesbian wedding at her house. We've certainly come a long way from the early days of CCM. That now seems innocent, wholesome, and even steadfast.
One could say (given all that has been argued here) that I might be a prime candidate for swimming the Tiber (or Crossing the Bosphorus) and I have been forced to acknowledge the weight of such arguments and to a degree I can understand why many have abandoned the Reformation (and especially Evangelicalism) for Rome or Constantinople. But this is folly of an even greater magnitude as Rome and Constantinople are false systems – false and counterfeit manifestations of Christianity. This doesn't mean that every last thing Rome holds to or proclaims is wrong – as even the heirs of the sixteenth century Reformation will acknowledge, though there is little agreement as to what that all means. Those who defect to Rome have already embraced erroneous assumptions and then when the weight of everything is else is factored in – they make the perilous move and thinking they do Christ service, they join with His enemies. Unlike most contemporary Evangelicals, I still argue that Roman Catholicism is antichrist and at least a manifestation or a component of the Whore-Beast imagery of New Testament prophecy.
While the aforementioned councils of Late Antiquity were not 'ecumenical' councils – a point some make to argue their canon proclamations weren't considered universally authoritative – such an argument or appeal proves too much.
As mentioned previously contemporary Evangelicals and Confessional Protestants are quick to adopt the canons and concepts of Higher Criticism when it comes to these books and lump them in with the many (and often dubious) Second Temple narratives of the academy implying these works are pseudepigrapha and syncretistic.
http://proto-protestantism.blogspot.com/2022/12/gems-from-shepherd-of-hermas.html
In light of recent statements regarding the Early Church
Fathers I was asked to elaborate and perhaps defend some issues regarding the
Old Testament Apocrypha. This issue has gnawed at me for years and as I have
worked through the narratives and claims of the Magisterial Reformation I finally
came to a conclusion that its positions and arguments concerning these books are
highly problematic. As I have repeatedly stated, this does not grant anything
to Rome. That's not really the issue here.
I could write a full rebuttal of all the things I heard in
this episode of Iron Sharpens Iron, but what I found necessary was to (at the
very least) provide a real response to the hypothetical question asked by
Arnzen (the host) to Joe Boot at around the forty-one minute mark.
It's been quite a few years since I read The Shepherd of Hermas. Reading it anew I was reminded of how alien it is to Evangelical sensibilities. For my part, I found the second century work refreshing if a bit of a slog. But some of that perception is merely cultural. We are certainly impatient in our day and so many of the older works can seem tedious.
Once again my thoughts drifted back to Catholic claims
regarding the Fathers – ones echoed by nineteenth century figures like Cardinal
JH Newman and John Nevin. While I will once again grant that the Magisterial
Reformation and its Evangelical progeny may find the waters of Hermas strange,
I still contend they are something other than Roman Catholic.
Recently re-reading some Early Church Fathers, I was both pleased and inspired to discover this exhortation on the part of Ignatius of Antioch who was martyred in the early second century. Quoting from the longer extant version of his epistle to the Ephesians, we read in Chapter XIII:
Take
heed, then, often to come together to give thanks to God, and show forth His
praise. For when ye come frequently together in the same place, the powers of
Satan are destroyed, and his "fiery darts" urging to sin fall back
ineffectual. For your concord and harmonious faith prove his destruction, and
the torment of his assistants. Nothing is better than that peace which is
according to Christ, by which all war, both of aerial and terrestrial spirits,
is brought to an end. "For we wrestle not against blood and flesh, but
against principalities and powers, and against the rulers of the darkness of
this world, against spiritual wickedness in heavenly places."