B16 vs Luther

B16 mentions Luther in his latest Encyclical "Spe Salvi" while discussing Heb. 11 and the definition of faith in relation to hope. I think that I will side with the authoritative interpretation rather than one man's personal interpretation, especially since Scripture tells us "there is no prophecy of scripture that is a matter of personal interpretation" (2 Pet. 1:20). Read the section below.

7. We must return once more to the New Testament. In the eleventh chapter of the Letter to the Hebrews (v. 1) we find a kind of definition of faith which closely links this virtue with hope. Ever since the Reformation there has been a dispute among exegetes over the central word of this phrase, but today a way towards a common interpretation seems to be opening up once more. For the time being I shall leave this central word untranslated. The sentence therefore reads as follows: “Faith is the hypostasis of things hoped for; the proof of things not seen”. For the Fathers and for the theologians of the Middle Ages, it was clear that the Greek word hypostasis was to be rendered in Latin with the term substantia. The Latin translation of the text produced at the time of the early Church therefore reads: Est autem fides sperandarum substantia rerum, argumentum non apparentium—faith is the “substance” of things hoped for; the proof of things not seen. Saint Thomas Aquinas[4], using the terminology of the philosophical tradition to which he belonged, explains it as follows: faith is a habitus, that is, a stable disposition of the spirit, through which eternal life takes root in us and reason is led to consent to what it does not see. The concept of “substance” is therefore modified in the sense that through faith, in a tentative way, or as we might say “in embryo”—and thus according to the “substance”—there are already present in us the things that are hoped for: the whole, true life. And precisely because the thing itself is already present, this presence of what is to come also creates certainty: this “thing” which must come is not yet visible in the external world (it does not “appear”), but because of the fact that, as an initial and dynamic reality, we carry it within us, a certain perception of it has even now come into existence. To Luther, who was not particularly fond of the Letter to the Hebrews, the concept of “substance”, in the context of his view of faith, meant nothing. For this reason he understood the term hypostasis/substance not in the objective sense (of a reality present within us), but in the subjective sense, as an expression of an interior attitude, and so, naturally, he also had to understand the term argumentum as a disposition of the subject. In the twentieth century this interpretation became prevalent—at least in Germany—in Catholic exegesis too, so that the ecumenical translation into German of the New Testament, approved by the Bishops, reads as follows: Glaube aber ist: Feststehen in dem, was man erhofft, Überzeugtsein von dem, was man nicht sieht (faith is: standing firm in what one hopes, being convinced of what one does not see). This in itself is not incorrect, but it is not the meaning of the text, because the Greek term used (elenchos) does not have the subjective sense of “conviction” but the objective sense of “proof”. Rightly, therefore, recent Protestant exegesis has arrived at a different interpretation: “Yet there can be no question but that this classical Protestant understanding is untenable”[5]. Faith is not merely a personal reaching out towards things to come that are still totally absent: it gives us something. It gives us even now something of the reality we are waiting for, and this present reality constitutes for us a “proof” of the things that are still unseen. Faith draws the future into the present, so that it is no longer simply a “not yet”. The fact that this future exists changes the present; the present is touched by the future reality, and thus the things of the future spill over into those of the present and those of the present into those of the future.

St. Hilary of Poitier

I've watched a bit more football this year than the last 10 or 12 years or so. It has been fun. I've seen some of todays "heros", if we can even call them that. I guess people dress up in their number and colors, pay loads of money to watch them, and seem to live for their next performance. Perhaps in 1500 years we will have Favre Mountain instead of St. Helens, Barry Bonds Bay instead of St. Lawrence Bay, or major cities like Michael Jorden instead of St. Louis, St. Paul (Paulo), St Francisco (Francis), St. Antonio (Anthony) etc, etc, etc.

Obviously, you all get my point, but I simply say that to explain why I am not ashamed to mention some of my heros from time to time to those I love. I am nearly everyday awakening to more and more amazing heros of the Faith as I learn and study about the designated saints.

Today we celebrate the Baptism of our LORD on the liturgical calender, but it is also the feast day of St. Hilary of Poitier. He has been designated as a Saint and Doctor of the Church by Catholics, but every Christian owes him as so many others a tremendous debt of gratitude.

The Arian heresy was so wide spread that it surpassed in numbers orthodoxy in the 3rd and 4th Centurys. Godly men like St. Hilary did more by God's grace in their obedience and service to God to preserve the truths of our Faith than we can ever fully appreciate. Today, most Christians take for granted that everyone believed in the Trinity as we all do and it simply isn't so.

Some of his writings have been preserved. Here is a link to his writings on the Trinity. Below I included a little bit of his life if you are interested. I think about him when I hear the word Hilary and not that forgettable other person popular today.

St. Hilary of Poitiers

"They didn't know who they were." This is how Hilary summed up the problem with the Arian heretics of the fourth century.

Hilary, on the other hand, knew very well who he was -- a child of a loving God who had inherited eternal life through belief in the Son of God. He hadn't been raised as a Christian but he had felt a wonder at the gift of life and a desire to find out the meaning of that gift. He first discarded the approach of many people who around him, who believed the purpose of life was only to satisfy desires. He knew he wasn't a beast grazing in a pasture. The philosophers agreed with him. Human beings should rise above desires and live a life of virtue, they said. But Hilary could see in his own heart that humans were meant for even more than living a good life.

If he didn't lead a virtuous life, he would suffer from guilt and be unhappy. His soul seemed to cry out that wasn't enough to justify the enormous gift of life. So Hilary went looking for the giftgiver. He was told many things about the divine -- many that we still hear today: that there were many Gods, that God didn't exist but all creation was the result of random acts of nature, that God existed but didn't really care for his creation, that God was in creatures or images. One look in his own soul told him these images of the divine were wrong. God had to be one because no creation could be as great as God. God had to be concerned with God's creation -- otherwise why create it?

At that point, Hilary tells us, he "chanced upon" the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures. When he read the verse where God tells Moses "I AM WHO I AM" (Exodus 3:14), Hilary said, "I was frankly amazed at such a clear definition of God, which expressed the incomprehensible knowledge of the divine nature in words most suited to human intelligence." In the Psalms and the Prophets he found descriptions of God's power, concern, and beauty. For example in Psalm 139, "Where shall I go from your spirit?", he found confirmation that God was everywhere and omnipotent.

But still he was troubled. He knew the giftgiver now, but what was he, the recipient of the gift? Was he just created for the moment to disappear at death? It only made sense to him that God's purpose in creation should be "that what did not exist began to exist, not that what had begun to exist would cease to exist." Then he found the Gospels and read John's words including "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God..." (John 1:1-2). From John he learned of the Son of God and how Jesus had been sent to bring eternal life to those who believed. Finally his soul was at rest. "No longer did it look upon the life of this body as troublesome or wearisome, but believed it to be what the alphabet is to children... namely, as the patient endurance of the present trials of life in order to gain a blissful eternity." He had found who he was in discovering God and God's Son Jesus Christ.

After becoming a Christian, he was elected bishop of Poitiers in what is now France by the laity and clergy. He was already married with one daughter named Apra.

Not everyone at that time had the same idea of who they were. The Arians did not believe in the divinity of Christ and the Arians had a lot of power including the support of the emperor Constantius. This resulted in many persecutions. When Hilary refused to support their condemnation of Saint Athanasius he was exiled from Poitiers to the East in 356. The Arians couldn't have had a worse plan -- for themselves.

Hilary really had known very little of the whole Arian controversy before he was banished. Perhaps he supported Athanasius simply because he didn't like their methods. But being exiled from his home and his duties gave him plenty of time to study and write. He learned everything he could about what the Arians said and what the orthodox Christians answered and then he began to write. "Although in exile we shall speak through these books, and the word of God, which cannot be bound, shall move about in freedom." The writings of his that still exist include On the Trinity, a commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, and a commentary on the Psalms. He tells us about the Trinity, "For one to attempt to speak of God in terms more precise than he himself has used: -- to undertake such a thing is to embark upon the boundless, to dare the incomprehensible. He fixed the names of His nature: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Whatever is sought over and above this is beyond the meaning of words, beyond the limits of perception, beyond the embrace of understanding."

After three years the emperor kicked him back to Poitiers, because, we are told by Sulpicius Severus, the emperor was tired of having to deal with the troublemaker, "a sower of discord an a disturber of the Orient." But no one told Hilary he had to go straight back to his home and so he took a leisurely route through Greece and Italy, preaching against the Arians as he went.

In the East he had also heard the hymns used by Arians and orthodox Christians as propaganda. These hymns were not based on Scripture as Western hymns but full of beliefs about God. Back at home, Hilary started writing hymns of propaganda himself to spread the faith. His hymns are the first in the West with a known writer.

Some of use may wonder at all the trouble over what may seem only words to us now. But Hilary wasn't not fighting a war of words, but a battle for the eternal life of the souls who might hear the Arians and stop believing in the Son of God, their hope of salvation.

The death of Constantius in 361 ended the persecution of the orthodox Christians. Hilary died in 367 or 368 and was proclaimed a doctor of the Church in 1851. The Church of Puy claims supposed possession of his relics, but according to one tradition his body was borne to the church of St-Denys near Paris, while according to another it was taken from the church of St-Hilaire at Poitiers and burned by the Protestants in 1572

St. Basil the Great

If you missed it, his feast day was January 2nd.

St. Basil the Great was born at Caesarea of Cappadocia in 330. He was one of ten children of St. Basil the Elder and St. Emmelia. Several of his brothers and sisters are honored among the saints. He attended school in Caesarea, as well as Constantinople and Athens, where he became acquainted with St. Gregory Nazianzen in 352. A little later, he opened a school of oratory in Caesarea and practiced law. Eventually he decided to become a monk and found a monastery in Pontus which he directed for five years. He wrote a famous monastic rule which has proved the most lasting of those in the East. After founding several other monasteries, he was ordained and, in 370, made Bishop of Caesaria. In this post until his death in 379, he continued to be a man of vast learning and constant activity, genuine eloquence and immense charity. This earned for him the title of "Great" during his life and Doctor of the Church after his death. Basil was one of the giants of the early Church. He was responsible for the victory of Nicene orthodoxy over Arianism in the Byzantine East, and the denunciation of Arianism at the Council of Constantinople in 381-82 was in large measure due to his efforts. Basil fought simony, aided the victims of drought and famine, strove for a better clergy, insisted on a rigid clerical discipline, fearlessly denounced evil wherever he detected it, and excommunicated those involved in the widespread prostitution traffic in Cappadocia. He was learned, accomplished in statesmanship, a man of great personal holiness, and one of the great orators of Christianity.

Copied from "Saints" section of catholic.org

Belief

Thus belief embraces, as essential parts of itself, the profession of faith, the word and the unity which it effects; it embraces entry into the community's worship of God and so finally the fellowship which we call Church. Christian belief is not an idea but life; it is not mind existing for itself, but incarnation, mind in the body of history and its "We". It is not the mysticism of the self-identification of the mind with God, but obedience and service; the outstripping of oneself, liberation of the self precisely through its being taken into service by something not made or thought out by myself, the liberation of being taken into service of the whole.

This is by Professor Joseph Ratzinger [ now Pope Benedict XVI] in Introduction to Christianity 1968.

The Challange

I left this comment on a very nice man's blog, it will be fun to see if he responds. Regardless, I offer it to you LORD.

I just want to commend you for allowing the discussion to take place on your blog and most of all for your comments. You demonstrated a genuine desire to listen and learn.

Since I want to make this brief, I hope to say at least one thing to catch your interest. I had the luxury of passionately pursuing, in the quiet of my study, the answers to many of the questions posted without the many various personal opinions of others getting me off track. I just started working my way back through church history asking questions that would lead me into truth.

I don't have a concise biography to send you but I am willing to share transparently with you my journey from devout, pro-life, committed Christian of a Baptist heritage to a devout, pro-life, committed Christian of the Catholic heritage. I'm 40 years old.

My challenge to you is to ask the right questions. Distill the 1000 questions down to a few of the most essential that make or break the vast majority of the other questions. If anyone is genuinely willing to seek the truth, it will be found. I went to the source documents myself, scripture, Catechism of the Catholic Church, Encyclicals by Popes, and the earliest writings of arguments against the Catholic Church. I was able to weigh the evidence in meditation, reading, and discussion with my wife and oldest children.

I would have never considered or read anything Catholic simply because it never crossed my path until I became convinced by the Holy Spirit that contraception was part of the culture of death. Every branch of Christianity opposed all form of contraception until the Church of England broke in the 1930s. My own heritage of Fundamentalism mostly opposed it until the 1960s on a purely scriptural basis. The contraceptive pill was the step that landed in abortion. This is fact I will back up with all the logic, statistics, and reasons you require. It is true. One Church stood alone in opposition to this intrinsic evil and recognized it for what it was and is. Amazingly, its leadership (nearly one man, Pope Paul VI) stood in opposition to internal acceptance. He clearly stated what was wrong with contraception and what would happen with accepting its use in the encyclical Humanae Vitae. When I read it , integrity and a genuine desire to walk in the truth would not let me rest until I had confronted every obstacle in my path to Catholicism. It was either the greatest fluke of all time or the real deposit of faith.

My brother in Christ, I am not trying to convert you. I am merely proclaiming what I believe to be the truth and I am willing to back every claim. My 15 year old could answer each and every claim herself. Put her to the test. The sad reality is so many people refuse to test what they say they believe. You can attack every claim by the Catholic Church with my 15 year old and she will answer every one them because she is grounded in the truth.

I guess in some way I am throwing down the gauntlet. If you are curious link to the "young apologist" from my blog or engage me. She is much more generous and gentle than me, but I don't waste any time in asking the real tough questions.

May the peace of Christ be with you.
David Ulmer

Expecting number 8

Psalms 127

Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.

Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.

As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.

Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. (KJV)

I'm amazed that after so many years of reading these truths they sound so fresh and alive. When I am tired, I am often laboring in vain. It must be the LORD that builds the house. I must focus on the Fear of the LORD. Everything I desire comes to those who fear the LORD. Just read the next chapter.

Blessed is every one that fears the LORD; that walks in his ways.

For thou shalt eat the labor of your hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.

Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table.

Behold, thus shall the man be blessed that fears the LORD.

I guess these verses convinced me that I needed to learn the Fear of the LORD and apply it. Now more than ever I need to live Proverbs 2:1-5 and may I see my children's children walking with Christ.

Autobasileia is Salvation

Autobasileia is as Origen describes, the "Kingdom in person". It is Jesus.

Pope Benedict says in his book Jesus of Nazareth (p. 49),

Jesus himself is the Kingdom; the Kingdom is not a thing, it is not a geographical dominion like worldly kingdoms. It is a person; it is he. On this interpretation, the term "Kingdom of God" is itself a veiled Christology. By the way in which he speaks of the Kingdom of God, Jesus leads men to realize the overwhelming fact that in him God himself is present among them, that he is God's presence.

This sense of Christ as the embodiment of infinite realities is crucial in truly understanding reality itself, for Christ is the reality (Col. 2:17). When one attempts to define the Kingdom of God as something less than Christ himself, it will always fall short.

This is true in regards to salvation. Salvation is a mystery and a reality that begs definition. Real spiritual mysteries are infinitely knowable, so we have the study of salvation in Christ known as soteriology. Yet, so many gifted, godly, and great theologians fail to recognize the simplest, yet most profound truth, that salvation is a person. That person is Jesus Christ.

In language as in our thoughts, a noun must be either a person, place, or thing. But the truth of Salvation goes beyond man's attempts to narrow and define. Salvation is a person, place, and thing. That person is Jesus, the place is Jesus, and the event is Jesus. He is the Gospel. Jesus is the Good News.

When my sadly mistaken, Protestant brothers in Christ say the Roman Catholic Church preaches a different Gospel, they are actually revealing the fact that they either don't know what the Catholic Church professes or they have narrowly defined their Gospel to fit their doctrine rather than reality. Many have tried to narrow the definition of Salvation to an event, yet even their understanding of the "event" of Salvation has fallen short. They even go so far as to narrow their definition of salvation to a moment in time.

Even then they sadly make the focus of their truncated view of salvation to be some event in their life not the moment Christ said "it is finished", the moment he shed his blood, the moment he died, the moment he arose, the moment he ascended into heaven, or the moment he returns. The great irony is they accuse the Catholic of salvation by works and then define salvation as some moment THEY do something.

The true Evangelical, Pope Benedict XVI, demonstrates a clear understanding of this in discussing the disciple's mission on p. 173 of his book Jesus of Nazareth:

The first task is preaching: to give people the light of the word, the message of Jesus. The Apostles are first and foremost Evangelists - like Jesus, they preach the Kingdom of God and thereby gather people into God's new family. But the preaching of God's Kingdom is never just words, never just instruction. It is an event, just as Jesus himself is an event. God's Word in person. By announcing him, the Apostles lead their listeners to encounter him.

The emphasis added was mine, because protestant Evangelicals preach a Gospel that says you must get saved, and that moment is the main event. The true Gospel preserved in the Roman Catholic Church says that you must get the Savior. They say that the moment you get saved you get Jesus. We say that every moment is an opportunity to get Jesus, to be more like Him or to draw nearer to Him. He must increase and we must decrease. Salvation can only be understood as a process. As a person, Salvation is a growing relationship with Jesus. As a place, Salvation is drawing closer to Jesus. As an event, Salvation transcends all of time from its beginning to infinity, AND BEYOND!.

When someone describes something it can easily be true even if it falls short of complete. However, if that person then claims to have a complete description or narrow it by saying what it is not then they have raised the bar on whether their claim is true or not. This is my point of contention with those who claim things like "faith alone", "salvation is not a process", or the Catholic Church teaches a "different Gospel" than found in the scripture. Claiming that salvation is a process does not exclude moments, but the "moment only" message excludes the process. I can see moments of salvation described and experienced in scripture but scripture absolutely teaches nowhere "moment only" or "faith alone". It clearly states just the opposite in Paul's command to work out your salvation and in Jame's statement that we are not justified by faith alone.

This pattern of error, which is to truncate the truth, can be clearly seen in regard to the canon of scripture and in regard to Ecclesiastic authority as well. Their Bible is not complete and the concept of "sola scriptura" is incomplete. They fail to recognize the full canon. They also refuse to admit that perfect truth in the scripture must have an interpretation without error to be true. The interpretation can be true even though it may be incomplete, but it must be infallible to be true. The Scripture does little good without accurate preservation, translation, and interpretation.