THE POTTER AND HIS CHURCH

I know I said I'd be staying away, but Alastair is posting some very important thoughts on the nature of the church and God's purposes through history. It would be wrong to let this go by without trying to draw some attention to it.

The initial post was occasioned by an amazingly parochial (and self-important) view of one particular (and particularly small) sect. Its message is much needed.

The second post deals with how we are to understand what God is up to throughout the church’s history. Please give it a read.

Now, there's a third.

It occurs to me that I'd never have taken this stuff seriously (sharing the parochial and self-important understanding of the small sect mentioned above) a few years ago. The dam gave way when I understood that the Christian gospel is not "justification by faith alone." Millions of Christians were justified by faith alone before the innovation was first clearly articulated around the time of the Reformation. As Hooker said, a person can be justified by faith alone without ever knowing about or affirming justification by faith alone.

“If you confess with your mouth ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” It is faith in Christ that justifies- not faith in a particular understanding of the mechanics of how guilt is dealt with. The gospel is found....well, in the gospels.

Once this became obvious, my whole world stood on its head. There was a entire reality of roadways and commuters out there that I had never considered before. I needed to pull the car out of the backyard and head for the freeway. That was both exhilarating and terrifying.

I understood for the first time that an automobile can be driven by people who have no idea of what's going on under the hood. Happens ever day, and I ought to be wary of mechanics who want to deny that, or who claim to be able to understand engine operations that are in fact hidden from view.

Sure, if I prefer I can tinker, modify and postulate on what's going on under that hood... the one that came from the manufacturer without a release lever... all day long, but I shouldn't look down on those who just get in and drive or who have a different idea of what's going on under the hood that neither of us can, in fact, open. The most important concern is that the thing is running. After all, a car is for driving, and there are those who have been on the road a lot longer than I; maybe they know a thing or two that I don't. Is it possible?