Posted on 02/18/2015 3:24:56 PM PST by NYer
You wouldnt think that anyone would fight about Ash Wednesday and Lent. For Catholics its part of what we do. For others its something they can use or not as they find it helpful, and increasing numbers do. Down-the-line Evangelical churches have started to hold special services for Ash Wednesday complete with ashes and to treat the Sundays after it as Sundays in Lent. Rather severely anti-sacramental Evangelicals now speak of giving things up and fasting on Fridays.
I find this cheering, but my friend Carl Trueman doesnt. Carl teaches Church history at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, the flagship of serious Reformed (i.e., Calvinist) Christianity in America. Hes a pastor in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. If youre thinking of the somewhat wooly-minded, generically Protestant Presbyterians in the church in middle of town, youre not thinking of Carls kind of Presbyterian. The mainline Presbyterians are the ones in tweed and corduroy; Carls type are in biker leathers. Hes one John Calvin would have recognized as a brother.
Writing on Reformation21, the website of the Alliance for Confessing Evangelicals, Carl notes that Evangelicals have started observing the season and then lets loose:
He is clearly not pleased and I can see why. The adoption by Evangelicals of some Catholic practices cheers me, however, because it is a gain for them, an expansion of their ways of living their faith, and one that reduces the gap between divided Christians. And, to be honest, because it opens a way for them to understand what the Catholic Church is about.
Carl is right that theyve picked pieces they like without enough thought about the thing from which theyre picking pieces, but as a Catholic I think thats a blessing rather than a mistake. He wants them to be more consistent and coherent Protestants and I would like them to be Catholics, and movement from one to the other requires some inconsistency and incoherence, the way a man wanders back and forth in the forest trying to find his way until he sees in the distance the place he is looking for.
The Church offers riches like an over-loaded wagon in a fairy tale, spilling gold coins every time it hits a pothole. Evangelicals can find in Catholic practice many things they can use just by walking along behind it. Though they have in their own tradition ways to express penance and forgiveness, as Carl notes, Ash Wednesday the whole rite, not just the imposition of ashes offers them a more dramatic way of hearing the truth and enacting it.
The question for them is how much they can take and adapt to their own purposes without having to face the claims of the Church from which theyre taking the things they like. I think rather a long way, because the Church draws upon a wisdom that it is not exclusively Catholic. You can enjoy the imposition of ashes without asking Who is Peter?
But there should come a point where you ask, What is this thing from whom Im always taking? What makes it a thing from which I can take so much? As Carl says, more pointedly: If your own tradition lacks the historical, liturgical and theological depth for which you are looking, it may be time to join a church which can provide the same.
I do not observe one day any differently from any other. If one has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, everyday is Christmas and everyday is Easter. If someone wants to observe days differently, let them be firmly convinced in their own minds, just do not insist that anyone else needs to do it too.
This should be viewed as a good sign that Our Lord is starting the process towards the unity of Christian believers.
Hey, at least its not as messy as Tatbir.
Congrats and God Bless!
Riiiiggggghhhhttt! And they don't broadcast what they are doing nor put those ashes center on their forehead either right? Nobody even notices that Catholics do that nor hear from them about it right? You all do it in secret right?
Matthew 6:16 "When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Do as you wish. I just let people know what God thinks of it.
Thus you are saying that God does NOT want his word and the salvation of our souls given to us by His Son spread throughout the world?
Or are folks confusing the idea of Jesus’ message and the warning from God are separate and that God’s warning does not apply to those who follow him?
Half Protestants? Really? Did they all pile off a Prot bus or did you ask each of them.
They were probably the A&P Catholics. The ones who show up for ashes and palms.
Hey, what are you doing spreading that freedom in Christ stuff?
Don’t you know that you’re supposed to be doing it their way?
Speaking of traditions...
Whatever happened to the Dove as the Christian Symbol of Peace?
LOL The wedding ring thing is what the apologists use pretty regularly ey? God said not to use their practices in how they served their gods in how they serve Him. Can you describe for me how your wedding ring is used in your service to God? Does the Catholic Church require it to be saved or to worship God?
That would be the approach Paul taught wouldn’t it.
I’ve heard of an attendance surge at Christmas and Easter but never for Ash Wednesday and Palm Sunday, LOL.
Why are you spreading it throughout the world if, according to the Catholic Church, those who have never heard are saved anyway?
The crows attacked em. They do balloons now.
The term fundamentalist came from a turn of the 19th to 20th century reaction to liberal churches and theological universities.
It is based on what are called the 5 fundamentals.
There are five fundamentals of the faith which are essential for Christianity, and upon which we agree:
1. The Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ (John 1:1; John 20:28; Hebrews 1:8-9).
2. The Virgin Birth (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23; Luke 1:27).
3. The Blood Atonement (Acts 20:28; Romans 3:25, 5:9; Ephesians 1:7; Hebrews 9:12-14).
4. The Bodily Resurrection (Luke 24:36-46; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, 15:14-15).
5. The inerrancy of the scriptures themselves (Psalms 12:6-7; Romans 15:4; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20).
Don’t know perhaps you agree with at least 4 of the above.
What makes you think these Protestants are using catholic ashes??
I suspect they are only using Real Protestant Ashes
Dont you know that youre supposed to be doing it their way?
LOL, roger that. I know there are some who cringe at Christian liberty, thinking we are getting away with something. As I say, if people want to observe days differently. That is fine. That is called Christian liberty. Just don't insist that I need to do the same. 😇
I noticed Ash Wednesday is a Western church practice. The Eastern Orthodox don’t do ashes to start Lent.
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