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The Dogma Lives Within You Loudly

John 14:6 “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life.”

Greetings Brothers and Sisters in Christ. 

In light of the recent Supreme Court of the United States, SCOTUS, nomination I was watching a report on YouTube.   Senator Dianne Feinstein is quoted as saying “The dogma lives loudly within you” as she critiqued Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s ability to make objective decisions regarding constitutional law.

This is an incredibly profound statement.  It describes a certain universal truth that is in all human beings.  It is a fair observation to make of any judge, teacher, or scientist.  Feinstein is saying that the teaching of a person’s faith, their ideology, religion, or politics; their “dogma,” is revealed in their ability to make unbiased decisions based on constitutional law. 

Senator Feinstein said this of Judge Barrett because she is convinced that the Judge’s Christian worldview will prevent her from being objective and so disqualifies her from consideration for a seat on the SCOTUS.  Yet there is also an official dogma that governs secular humanism and the religion of politics that lives so loudly in many of us today.  Just as our Christian teaching lives loudly in us, the secularism of today has it’s own dogma and lives loudly in us too.  The difference between the two is that the dogma of Christianity finds its origin in an unchanging God where the secularists’ dogma finds much of it’s origin in politics, science, and/or ideologies that change with the spirit of the times. 

The Christian worldview is bigger than secularism and constitutional law.  A Christian can use constitutional law as a tool, much like the scientific method is used to come to a logical, scientific conclusion. The Christian can do this without fear of these tools shattering his faith in the Truth.  A pure secularist, who’s truth resides in a political ideology whether conservative or liberal, may find it necessary to bend or force the constitution to meet his political ideology. If the Secularist lets the constitution speak for itself there will eventually be a point where something has to give. He will either have to change his ideology or change the meaning of the law. An ideological change is a painful process.  This is what a Secularist fears.  It is preferable to them to change the constitution than to change themselves. Yet a Christian is protected from this fear because he understands that the law of the land is not constant. Yes, ideologies change, even scientific understanding changes, but these are not the objects of Christian faith. The object of Christian faith is outside of these things. The Object of the Christian faith is the One True God Who never changes.

For the secularist, it is a matter of misplaced faith.  Jesus teaches us, “I am the way and the Truth and the Life.” (John 14:6)  In saying this Jesus is not only claiming His divinity but he is describing Himself as the only Truth, and the only way to the Father, God in heaven. There is no other way. There is no other Truth.  Also the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews teaches us, “So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.” (ESV Hebrews 6:17–20)  Here the writer shows us that this Divine Truth, Jesus Christ the object of our faith, is unchangeable. 

In an interview on Issues etc. the Anthropologist Dr. Ned Farley said, “the Postmodernist says that whatever they present to you will never approach the level of truth because everything is changeable.  But the Christian brings Absolute Unchanging Truth with them, knowing that scientific principles and ideologies will change.”  This protects the Christian from the ever present temptation of trying to change the constitution in order to preserve his faith. 

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It is not the decision making abilities of a strong confident Christian that we should fear. With such a person we are more likely to see an objective interpretation of the constitution.  It is the secularist, who places his faith in an ideology or a political idea, that we should fear.  They face great temptation to wrongly interpreted the constitution so that they do not have to change their precious self made belief system.  They fear the pain of change when the constitution poses a challenge to ideology.

A Christian is more likely to allow the constitution to speak for itself because they have no fear of losing faith. No nation’s laws can change a Christian’s faith in the objective Truth, Jesus Christ Crucified for our sins.  Politics, Scientific understandings and ideologies will change over time.  God the Father Son and Holy Spirit will never change.  God is always the same.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

The peace of our Lord be with you always,

Rev Anthony B Mandile III

Resources:

The context of Feinstein’s statement:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAI_ZgOAbh8

The context of Dr. Ned Farley’s statement:  https://issuesetc.org/2018/08/24/2361-classroom-apologetics-anthropology-101-dr-ned-farley-8-24-18/

Devotional Thought for February 18, 2018

Devotional Thought for February 18, 2018:

Saint James begins, “Count it all joy, my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds” (1:2)   James engages his readers in a very important and relevant conversation about trials and temptations which are part of every Christian’s life.  Our epistle lesson today falls within this discussion and is followed with James’ exhortation to be doers of the Word.  James wants his readers to have a proper understanding of how trials and temptations are part of our lives and how God supplies what we need to deal with both.  As far as trials go, James points us to God and His purposes for the trials we experience rather than pointing to the trials themselves.  Similarly, James deals with temptations by pointing us to the Word of truth, the Gospel, where the focus is on God’s work for us, not on our attempts to defeat temptation.  There is a wonderful blessing of joy when we Christians believe that God is with His people in all trials and temptations of this world and supplies all we need to deal with both by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

In Christ,
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Pastor Tony Mandile

 

Devotional Thought for January 28, 2018

Devotional Thought for January 28, 2018:

And they were astonished at [Jesus’] teaching, for He taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes.”  (Mark 1:22)

Authority is given, not taken.  In the Gospel according to Mark a man with an unclean spirit cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?  Have you come to destroy us?  I know who you are—the Holy One of God.” (Mark 1:24)  And Jesus stops it, rebuking it saying, “Be silent, come out of him!”  Why did Jesus stop the unclean spirit from speaking what seems to be the truth about Jesus?  Well, this has to do with authority.  The unclean spirit had no authority to speak about the Son of God, the Word become flesh, or of the Father in heaven for that matter.

This authority of Christ follows through to the Holy Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments.  Note these words of Saint Peter, one of the twelve who were given the authority to speak about the Father, Son and Holy Spirit:    Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, 11 inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. (1 Pet. 1:10 ESV)  Peter is telling us that the prophets of the Old Testament were also led by the Spirit of Christ and they prophesied about the work of salvation that Jesus would one day complete.  The fact that the prophets were led by the Spirit of Christ indicates that they had the authority to speak about these things.

Francis Pieper, author of Christian Dogmatics, describes this authority of the Bible.
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There is only one book in the world which possesses the quality of perfect unity, and that is the Bible.  Though its writers were men of widely different culture and a period of about 1,500 years separated the last from the first writer, the Bible owes its perfect and inerrant unity to the fact that it was written by the inspiration of God.  For that we have the authoritative declarations of Christ and His Apostles relative to both the New and the Old Testament in all their parts.  (Pieper, F. Christian Dogmatics volume 1, CPH, St. Louis. p. 142.)

So it is with confidence that we hear God’s Word and live by it.  Even though the world would say and teach us otherwise, Christ did die on the cross and rise again to free you from the struggle with temptations from the devil, your own flesh, and the world.  Your sins really are forgiven!  Yes, here and now we struggle and persevere in hope, but at the consummation, this Word of authority, spoken by the Father will complete in us what He says.  “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (Jn. 8:31 ESV)

In Christ,

Pastor Tony Mandile

Devotional Thought for January 21, 2018

Devotional Thought for January 21, 2018:

In the Gospel according to St Mark chapter one, Jesus says, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”  This simple sentence contains a command “Follow me” and a promise, “and I will make you fishers of men.”  The command is specifically given to Andrew and Simon, literally to follow Jesus at that moment and they did.  The powerful Word of God that spoke the universe into being, “Let there be… and there was,” moved these men to obedience.  Today when we hear Jesus’ words, “follow me” they demand the same obedience.  Following Christ means to place yourself into the proximity of the Word and Sacramental ministry of His Church.  That is our duty as Christians to hear and read the Word of God and receive the sacraments regularly.  And there the “following” begins.

The promise, “and I will make you fishers of men,” is rooted in God’s gift of love.  There is a correlation between our obedience and our ability to love.  “And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments…”(2 John 6)  Don’t confuse the promise with the command.  God is the one doing the action and you are the ones being made into fishers of men.  The promise “I will make you fishers of men,” is that God will make you, God will cause you, God will enable you to love your neighbor.  Your true love for your neighbor is to share your faith in Christ with them.  To care whether they suffer for eternity or live in Christ for eternity. To bring your neighbor into the Word and Sacramental ministry, that Jesus established as His Church, is the highest expression of love one neighbor can give to another.  This ability to express this love is God’s gift to you.  God’s Word says, “I will make you fishers of men,” and God’s Word does what He says.

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In Christ,

Pastor Tony Mandile