The shopping holidays have passed us by and now we enter into an Easter season. This video comes at you a couple of months late but nevertheless makes you wonder where American priorities are. Do you fall into any of these categories? I know I like spending money on coffee.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
" extra ecclesiam, nulla salus"
“No salvation outside the church!” For those of you who have recently heard this for the first time I feel obliged to inform you, it is not a new idea. That’s right, this “doctrine” has been handed down through the centuries by many a theologians, mostly from the Catholic camp. What? Yeah, this type of teaching is prominent in Catholic teaching and other Eastern Orthodox Traditions (capital T emphasized). But don’t take my word for it, read further.
Concerning this doctrine the Pope of Vatican I, Pius IX, spoke on two different occasions. In an allocution (address to an audience) on December 9th, 1854 he said:
We must hold as of the faith, that out of the Apostolic Roman Church there is no salvation;
that she is the only ark of safety, and whosoever is not in her perishes in the deluge; we must also, on the other hand, recognize with certainty that those who are invincible in ignorance of the true religion are not guilty for thisin the eyes of the Lord. And who would presume to mark out the limits of this ignorance according to the character and diversity of peoples, countries, minds and the rest?
Doesn’t this contradict scripture? God "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:4). "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). Peter proclaimed to the Sanhedrin, "There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).
If it is God’s desire for all men to be saved, then it is fair to say there is a possibility the Institutionalized Church is limiting His redemption. But that is just it. The way this dogma is taught today contradicts its original meaning as well. Today you hear “There is no salvation outside the institutionalized church.” This basically means “where people are married and buried.” If these basic tenets are not observed then “two people having coffee are fooling themselves, that isn’t church.” Even the Catholic Church understands the universal (not to be mistaken as universalism) salvific will of God. But today, the phrase is used differently. What are they really saying? They are saying that unless someone is a full fledged, baptized member of the Institutionalized Church they will be damned. Even a perfunctory reading of Catholic teaching will enlighten a person’s awareness at where this teaching comes from and originally meant.
Bottom line, all of this is nonessential. Why? Because if it were true, that a person cannot be saved outside the Institutionalized Church, then we need to stop doing outreach, street ministry, Bible study, hospital visitations, home visits, Bible discussion over coffee, and so on the list goes. Missions are useless as well. So instead of making yourself feel good by going to visit people in a 3rd world country who you can’t play a part in “redemption” sow that plane ticket money into the Institution because that’s who has trump on salvation.
What do I think? Me thinks this is man’s attempt at preserving a way of life he created that is daily growing more and more irrelevant to what God wants to do on earth. The Institutionalized Church is not the access door for the Kingdom, Christ and the work of the Cross are. Read the beatitudes. Consequently, we, the Church, the ekklesia, the called out ones, are the access door for the Kingdom and everything within range of our effective-will can and should be touched by it. My prayer is we all see God’s desire to use us outside the Institutionalized Church to further His Kingdom. I encourage you not to fall into this same trap that was set by the Catholics during the Reformation when experiencing a mass exodus. Look at what came of people being obedient to God and not man. The birth of the Protestant Church!
Concerning this doctrine the Pope of Vatican I, Pius IX, spoke on two different occasions. In an allocution (address to an audience) on December 9th, 1854 he said:
We must hold as of the faith, that out of the Apostolic Roman Church there is no salvation;
that she is the only ark of safety, and whosoever is not in her perishes in the deluge; we must also, on the other hand, recognize with certainty that those who are invincible in ignorance of the true religion are not guilty for thisin the eyes of the Lord. And who would presume to mark out the limits of this ignorance according to the character and diversity of peoples, countries, minds and the rest?
Doesn’t this contradict scripture? God "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:4). "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me" (John 14:6). Peter proclaimed to the Sanhedrin, "There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).
If it is God’s desire for all men to be saved, then it is fair to say there is a possibility the Institutionalized Church is limiting His redemption. But that is just it. The way this dogma is taught today contradicts its original meaning as well. Today you hear “There is no salvation outside the institutionalized church.” This basically means “where people are married and buried.” If these basic tenets are not observed then “two people having coffee are fooling themselves, that isn’t church.” Even the Catholic Church understands the universal (not to be mistaken as universalism) salvific will of God. But today, the phrase is used differently. What are they really saying? They are saying that unless someone is a full fledged, baptized member of the Institutionalized Church they will be damned. Even a perfunctory reading of Catholic teaching will enlighten a person’s awareness at where this teaching comes from and originally meant.
Bottom line, all of this is nonessential. Why? Because if it were true, that a person cannot be saved outside the Institutionalized Church, then we need to stop doing outreach, street ministry, Bible study, hospital visitations, home visits, Bible discussion over coffee, and so on the list goes. Missions are useless as well. So instead of making yourself feel good by going to visit people in a 3rd world country who you can’t play a part in “redemption” sow that plane ticket money into the Institution because that’s who has trump on salvation.
What do I think? Me thinks this is man’s attempt at preserving a way of life he created that is daily growing more and more irrelevant to what God wants to do on earth. The Institutionalized Church is not the access door for the Kingdom, Christ and the work of the Cross are. Read the beatitudes. Consequently, we, the Church, the ekklesia, the called out ones, are the access door for the Kingdom and everything within range of our effective-will can and should be touched by it. My prayer is we all see God’s desire to use us outside the Institutionalized Church to further His Kingdom. I encourage you not to fall into this same trap that was set by the Catholics during the Reformation when experiencing a mass exodus. Look at what came of people being obedient to God and not man. The birth of the Protestant Church!
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